%0 Journal Article
%A M Huijben
%A L.W Martin
%A Y.-H Chu
%A M.B Holcomb
%A P Yu
%A G Rijnders
%A D.H.A Blank
%A Ramamoorthy Ramesh
%B Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics
%D 2008
%G eng
%R 10.1103/PhysRevB.78.094413
%T Critical thickness and orbital ordering in ultrathin La0.7 Sr0.3 MnO3 films
%V 78
%X Detailed analysis of transport, magnetism, and x-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements on ultrathin La0.7 Sr0.3 MnO3 films with thicknesses from 3 to 70 unit cells resulted in the identification of a lower critical thickness for a nonmetallic nonferromagnetic layer at the interface with the SrTiO3 (001) substrate of only three unit cells (∼12 Å). Furthermore, linear-dichroism measurements demonstrate the presence of a preferred (x2 - y2) in-plane orbital ordering for all layer thicknesses without any orbital reconstruction at the interface. A crucial requirement for the accurate study of these ultrathin films is a controlled growth process, offering the coexistence of layer-by-layer growth and bulklike magnetic/transport properties. © 2008 The American Physical Society.