QUANTIFYING STRAIN DEPENDENCE IN COLOSSAL MAGNETORESISTANCE MANGANITES

Experimental, phenomenological, and theoretical analyses are given of the dependence on strain of the ferromagnetic T-c of the colossal magn etoresistance (CMR) rare earth manganese perovskites. It is found that T-c is extremely sensitive to biaxial strain; by implication other ph ysical properties are also. The results indicate that biaxial strain i s an important variable which must be considered in the design of devi ces based on thin films and provide evidence in favor of the relevance of the Jahn-Teller electron-phonon coupling to the CMR phenomenon. (C ) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(97)07224-1].