Reentrant Insulating State in Ultrathin Manganite Films

The transport and magnetic properties of La{sub 0.7}Sr{sub 0.3}MnO{sub 3} thin-films grown by pulsed laser deposition on (LaAlO{sub 3}){sub 0.3}(SrAl{sub 0.5}Ta{sub 0.5}O{sub 3}){sub 0.7} single crystal substrates have been investigated. A systematic series with various thicknesses of La{sub 0.7}Sr{sub 0.3}MnO{sub 3} was used to establish a phase diagram - which showed a clear difference compared to films grown on SrTiO{sub 3} substrates, highlighting the importance of film thickness and substrate strain. At 8 unit cells, the boundary between the metallic and insulating ground states, a second abrupt metal-insulator transition was observed at low temperatures, which could be tuned with by magnetic field, and is interpreted as a signature of electronic phase separation