Uniaxial stress influence on electrical conductivity of thin epitaxial lanthanum-strontium manganite films

Abstract

This is a study of the influence of external uniaxial mechanical strains on the transport properties of thin epitaxial La0.83Sr0.17MnO3 (LSMO) films. Our measurements were carried out using standard isosceles triangle-shaped cantilever. Films which were tensed in-plane or compressed or were subjected to both tension and compression strains were grown onto SrTiO3 (STO), LaAlO3 (LAO) and (001) NdGaO3 (NGO) substrates, respectively. It was found that for thin films (less than 100 nm), the uniaxial compression of such films which were initially tensed in-plane (grown onto STO substrates) produces a decrease of their resistance, whereas the compression of initially compressed films (on LAO substrates) produces an increase of the films' resistance. The same results were obtained for LSMO films grown onto (001) NGO substrates when they were compressed along the [010] and [100] directions, respectively. For thicker films (more than 100 nm), the resistance behavior after uniaxial compression was found to be identical to that produced by hydrostatic compression, namely, the resistance decreases irrespective of the substrate. These experiments also reveal an increase of resistance and a shift of metal-insulator transition temperature Tm to lower temperatures corresponding to a decrease of the film thickness. The occurrence of this effect is also independent of the kind of substrate used. Thus it was concluded that the influence of film thickness on its resistance as well as on the behavior of such films while under external uniaxial compression cannot be explained fully by only the presence of residual stress in these films. A possible reason is that the inhomogeneous distribution of the mechanical stresses in the films can lead to the appearance of two conductivity phases, each having a different mechanism. The results which were obtained when these films were subjected to hydrostatic compression were also explained by this model.