Magnetization reversal in half metallic La0.7Sr 0.3MnO3 films grown onto vicinal surfaces

Abstract

We present the study of the magnetic properties of well-characterized epitaxial half metallic La 0.7 Sr 0.3 MnO 3 films grown onto vicinal SrTiO 3 (001) substrates with different miscut angles. Room temperature high resolution vectorial Kerr magnetometry measurements have been performed at different applied magnetic field directions in the whole angular range. The films present a substrate-induced uniaxial (twofold) magnetic anisotropy originated from in-plane [110]-oriented elongated structures, whereas the strength of this anisotropy increases with the miscut angle of the substrate surfaces. Our results demonstrate that we can artificially control the magnetic anisotropy of epitaxial films, up to 120 nm thick, by exploiting the substrate-induced anisotropy. We also determine in this case the minimum vicinal angle required to get well-defined uniaxial magnetic anisotropy. © 2011 American Institute of Physics.