Magnetic and magnetotransport properties of ultrathin La0.7Ba0.3MnO3 epitaxial films embedded in SrRuO3

Abstract

The structural, magnetic and magnetotransport properties of La0.7Ba0.3MnO3 layers interfaced with SrRuO3 layers were studied. High quality trilayers with coherent interfaces were fabricated by pulsed laser deposition. The thickness of the embedded La0.7Ba0.3MnO3 layer was varied between one and five unit cells, whereas the embedding SrRuO3 layers were kept at a constant thickness of three unit cells. In this embedded geometry La0.7Ba0.3MnO3 layers are ferromagnetic, even if only one unit cell thick. Magnetization and anomalous Hall effect curves show an antiferromagnetic coupling of the layers that leads to an intricate magnetic field dependence. When this is disentangled, it can be shown that the magnetic and transport properties are mainly dominated by the corresponding properties of the constituent materials.