Effect of substrate and orientation on charge ordering behaviors in epitaxial Pr{sub 0.5}Ca{sub 0.35}Sr{sub 0.15}MnO{sub 3} films

The charge ordering (CO) behaviors of Pr{sub 0.5}Ca{sub 0.35}Sr{sub 0.15}MnO{sub 3} films grown on STO(100), STO(110) and LAO(100) are systematically investigated by transport measurements and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) examinations. From the transport measurements, the CO transition temperatures of all the three films are much higher than those of the bulk materials, showing that the film strain could enhance the CO transition. From TEM observations, many superlattice spots appear in the electron diffraction patterns taken from the films, indicating the appearance of the CO modulation structures at room temperature. The modulation vectors are determined to be (1/2, 0, 0) for STO (100), (1/2, 1/2, 1/2) for STO (110), and both (0, 1/2, 0) and (1/2, 1/2, 0) for LAO (100). It is shown that both the substrate orientation and the film strain have a great effect on the CO modulation structures. The CO state is much easier to appear in the compressive strain direction which is due to the Mn-O-Mn angle tilting.