An enhancement of the ferromagnetic volume fraction in La0.9Ba0.1Mn1−xCrxO3 thin films

An enhancement of the ferromagnetic (FM) volume fraction was induced greatly by partial substitutions of Cr for Mn in La0.9Ba0.1MnO3 (LBMO) thin films fabricated by the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique on [1 0 0] LaAlO3 substrates. While the Curie temperature did not change much, the magnitude of the magnetization was increased prominently. However, this enhancement did not go along with any increase of the conductivity of Cr-doped LBCM films. It is assumed that not only did Cr3+ substitute for Mn3+, therefore, reduced the double-exchange (DE) interaction between two Mn sites, but it weakened the Jahn Teller (JT) distortion.