Large Tunability of Physical Properties of Manganite Thin Films by Epitaxial Strain

Physical properties of strongly correlated manganites are known to depend sensitively on lattice parameters. We show that in thin film form, the magnetic and transport properties of manganites can be tuned in a wide range using epitaxial strain. Specifically, by systematically varying the strain from negative to positive, we have observed 65%, -33%, 650%, and -17% changes for the saturation magnetization field H-s, saturation magnetization M-s, resistivity, and metal-insulator transition temperature. We explain these results with density functional theory calculations.