Anomalous strain effect on magnetic properties of La1-xBaxMnO3 epitaxial thin films

We report an anomalous strain effect on magnetic properties in La1-xBaxMnO3 (LBMO) thin films. Epitaxial LBMO films grown on SrTiO3(100) (STO) single- crystal substrate by pulsed laser deposition suffer strains due to the latt ice mismatch between LBMO and STO. For films with x = 0.1 and x = 0.2, tens ile strain enhances the ferromagnetic state, resulting in the ferromagnetic Curie temperature T-C increasing significantly compared with the correspon ding bulk materials. However, for x = 0.3 and x = 0.33, T-C decreases in th in films. These results are very different from the previous reported strai n effect in other colossal magnetoresistance manganite thin films, and can be interpreted by considering the strain-induced modification of orbital e( g) stability. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.