Uniaxial strain-controlled ground states in manganite films

Strongly correlated perovskite oxides exhibit a plethera of intriguing phenomena and stimulate a great potential for multifunctional device applications. Utilizing tunable uniaxial strain, rather than biaxial or anisotropic strain delivered from the crystallography of a single crystal substrate, to modify the ground state of strongly correlated perovskite oxides has rarely been addressed for phase-space control. Here, we show that the physical properties of La2/3Ca1/3MnO3 (LCMO) films are remarkably different depending on the crystallographic orientations of the orthorhombic NdGaO3 (NGO) substrates. And more importantly, the antiferromagnetic charge-ordered insulating (COI) phase induced in the (100) or (001)-oriented LCMO films can be dramatically promoted (or suppressed) by a uniaxial tensile (or compressive) bending stress along the in-plane [010] direction. By contrast, the COI phase is nearly unaffected along the other transverse in-plane directions. Results from scanning transmission electron micros...