In-plane magnetic anisotropy of La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 film grown on (0001) sapphire

La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 (LCMO) films were grown on (0001) single-crystal sapphire (α-Al2O3) substrate by pulsed laser deposition. In this work, the growth of (110) oriented LCMO film on sapphire was achieved by controlling the film's deposition conditions, specifically the substrate temperature. The fixed orientation relationship between the film and the substrate [(110)f∥(0001)s, (1-10)f∥(01-10)s, (001)f∥(2-110)s], was measured by high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) and grazing incident X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) techniques. The LCMO film showed interesting in-plane magnetic anisotropy along the two mutually perpendicular in-plane directions, corresponding to [001]f as strong and [1-10]f as weak magnetization directions.