Dresden 2006 – scientific programme

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MA: Magnetismus

MA 2: Magnetic Thin Films I

MA 2.3: Talk

Monday, March 27, 2006, 10:45–11:00, HSZ 03

XPS investigation of the Mn valence in lanthanum manganite thin films under variation of the oxygen content — •Elke Beyreuther¹, Stefan Grafström¹, Christian Thiele², Kathrin Dörr², and Lukas M. Eng¹ — ¹Institut für Angewandte Photophysik, Technische Universität Dresden, D-01062 Dresden — ²Institut für Metallische Werkstoffe, IFW Dresden, Postfach 270116, D-01171 Dresden

The question whether LaMnO₃ accepts doping with tetravalent cations such as cerium and thus allows the preparation of electron-doped mixed-valent lanthanum manganites has been discussed controversially so far. Against the background of this problem, we present a comparative X-ray photoemission (XPS) study of epitaxial La_0.7Ce_0.3MnO₃ (LCeMO) and La_0.7Ca_0.3MnO₃ (LCMO) thin films. We focus on the exchange splitting of the Mn 3s core level peak, which is a direct indicator of the Mn valence [1] and allows us to quantify the Mn valence in the outermost 3 nm of the films. We demonstrate that, depending on the oxygen content, the Mn valence can be tuned between a mixed Mn^3+/4+ state and a mixed Mn^2+/3+ state in both the LCeMO and the LCMO film. The oxygen content was varied by heating in ultrahigh vacuum for deoxygenation and in an oxygen atmosphere for reoxidation. In the LCeMO film, the deoxygenation not only changes the Mn valence, but also the Ce valence is driven from the 4+ towards the 3+ state.

[1] V. R. Galakhov et al., Phys. Rev. B 65, 113102 (2002).