Anisotropic spin-density distribution and magnetic anisotropy of strained La${}_{1-x}$Sr${}_x$MnO${}_3$ thin films: Angle-dependent x-ray magnetic circular dichroism

Abstract

Magnetic anisotropies of ferromagnetic thin films are induced by epitaxial strain from the substrate via strain-induced anisotropy in the orbital magnetic moment and that in the spatial distribution of spin-polarized electrons. However, the preferential orbital occupation in ferromagnetic metallic La${}_{1-x}$Sr${}_x$MnO${}_3$ (LSMO) thin films studied by x-ray linear dichroism (XLD) has always been found out-of-plane for both tensile and compressive epitaxial strain and hence irrespective of the magnetic anisotropy. In order to resolve this mystery, we directly probed the preferential orbital occupation of spin-polarized electrons in LSMO thin films under strain by angle-dependent x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD). Anisotropy of the spin-density distribution was found to be in-plane for the tensile strain and out-of-plane for the compressive strain, consistent with the observed magnetic anisotropy. The ubiquitous out-of-plane preferential orbital occupation seen by XLD is attributed to the occupation of both spin-up and spin-down out-of-plane orbitals in the surface magnetic dead layer.

20 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Critical thickness and orbital ordering in ultrathin La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 films
• Evidence of orbital reconstruction at interfaces in La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 films

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