Step-induced uniaxial magnetic anisotropy of La:67Sr:33MnO3 thin films

Abstract

The magnetic anisotropy of epitaxial La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 (LSMO) thin films on vicinal, TiO2-terminated SrTiO3 substrates is investigated. Atomic force microscopy shows a regular step-terrace structure on the LSMO surface which is a replication of the surface of the substrate. The films show in-plane uniaxial magnetic anisotropy at room temperature, with the easy axis along the step direction. At low temperature the films show biaxial crystalline anisotropy with easy axes along [110], and hard axes along the [100] direction of LSMO.