Quantifying strain dependence in “colossal” magnetoresistance manganites

Experimental, phenomenological, and theoretical analyses are given of the dependence on strain of the ferromagnetic Tc of the colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) rare earth manganese perovskites. It is found that Tc is extremely sensitive to biaxial strain; by implication other physical properties are also. The results indicate that biaxial strain is an important variable which must be considered in the design of devices based on thin films and provide evidence in favor of the relevance of the Jahn–Teller electron-phonon coupling to the CMR phenomenon.