Eur. Phys. J. B 55, 337-345 (2007)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2007-00077-7

Effect of the substrate ferroelastic transition on epitaxial La_0.7Sr_0.3MnO₃ films grown on LaAlO₃

¹ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Cagliari and CNISM, S.P. Monserrato-Sestu km 0.700, 09042 Monserrato (CA), Italy
² INFM “Coherentia” and INFM-UdR di Salerno, Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Salerno, via S. Allende, 84081 Baronissi (SA), Italy
³ Coherentia CNR-INFM and Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica, Università di Roma “TorVergata”, via del Politecnico 1, 00133 Roma, Italy

Corresponding author: ^a maritato@sa.infn.it

Received: 19 June 2006
Revised: 20 November 2006
Published online: 22 March 2007

Abstract

Thin films of La_0.7Sr_0.3MnO₃ were grown by molecular beam epitaxy on (001)LaAlO₃ crystals. High resolution X-ray diffraction analysis proves the presence of twins in the films at room temperature, showing that the twin structure of the substrate which forms at the ferroelastic transition at T_F = 813 K served as a template for the film microstructure. Magnetic measurements indicate a thermomagnetic irreversibility which is ascribed to the quenched disorder related to twinning and discussed in terms of coexisting ferromagnetic and spin disordered regions connected with the undeformed domain cores and strained domain walls respectively.