Ultrathin manganite films grown by pulsed-plasma deposition

Ultrathin ferromagnetic films of La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 were deposited by electron-beam ablation on standard SrTiO3(1 0 0) and NdGaO3(1 1 0) substrates. Even 4 nm. lms are metallic and develop spontaneous magnetization at room temperature: similar hysteresis cycles were measured by magneto optical Kerr effect (MOKE) in the longitudinal configuaration and by SQUID magnetometry. To the best of our knowledge the 4 nm thickness corresponds so far to the thinnest manganite film showing room-temperature ferromagnetism. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.