MICROSTRUCTURE STUDY ON THE La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 AND RARE-EARTH OXIDE VERTICALLY ALIGNED NANOCOMPOSITE THIN FILMS

Abstract

Two-phase (La0.7Sr0.3MnO3)0.5:(CeO2)0.5 (LSMO:CeO2) heteroepitaxial nanocomposite films were grown on SrTiO3 (STO) (001) by pulsed laser deposition. XRD and TEM results show that LSMO:CeO2 films epitaxially grow on STO as self-assembled vertically aligned nanocomposites (VAN). Magnetic and magnetotransport measurements demonstrate that the LSMO phases in the VAN structure behave differently from its epitaxial single phase counterpart. The greatly enhanced coercivity (HC) and low field magnetoresistance (LFMR) in VAN system is attributed to the strong interaction between the pervoskite the secondary phase. Our results suggest that growth of functional oxide in another oxide matrix with vertical heteroepitaxial form is a promising approach to achieve new functionality which may not be obtained in the single epitaxial phase.