Anisotropic magnetoresistance of (0 0 h), (0 h h) and (h h h) La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 thin films on (001) Si substrates

The epitaxial growth of magnetoresistive La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 thin films with different orientations on (0 0 1) Si substrates has been successfully achieved by a suitable choice of the buffer heterostructure. The out-of-plane and in-plane microstructure has been carefully analysed and related to the magnetocrystalline anisotropy. The dependence of the magnetoresistance (MR) as a function of the angle between the current and the applied field has been explored in a wide field range. At high field the magnetisation is saturated whatever the direction of the field and we observe the intrinsic anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) effect having a uniaxial anisotropy while at low field the magnetocrystalline anisotropy induces higher-order angle dependence of the magnetoresistance. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.