Thickness driven spin reorientation transition of epitaxial LaCrO3 films

We grew fully strained epitaxial LaCrO3 (LCO) films on SrTiO3(001) under layer-by-layer control up to the film thickness of t = 130 nm using a pulsed laser deposition method. The spin axis of the antiferromagnetic LCO film was systematically examined as a function of t by using Cr L2,3-edge x-ray magnetic linear dichroism (XMLD). The XMLD results manifest a spin reorientation transition (SRT) across a transition thickness of tT ∼ 60 nm. This SRT is well explained in terms of two competing magnetic anisotropy energies of the surface/interface (KS) and the LCO film itself (KV).