Nanoscale crystal imperfection-induced characterization changes of manganite nanolayers with various crystallographic textures

(La,Sr)MnO3 (LSMO) nanolayers with various crystallographic textures were grown on the sapphire substrate with and without In2O3 epitaxial buffering. The LSMO nanolayer with In2O3 epitaxial buffering has a (110) preferred orientation. However, the nanolayer without buffering shows a highly (100)-oriented texture. Detailed microstructure analyses show that the LSMO nanolayer with In2O3 epitaxial buffering has a high degree of nanoscale disordered regions (such as subgrain boundaries and incoherent heterointerfaces) in the film. These structural inhomogeneities caused a low degree of ferromagnetic ordering in LSMO with In2O3 epitaxial buffering, which leads to a lower saturation magnetization value and Curie temperature, and higher coercivity and resistivity.