Local mapping of strain at grain boundaries in colossal magnetoresistive films using x-ray microdiffraction.

Using x-ray submicrobeam, we spatially mapped the strain in epitaxial La[sub l-χ]Sr[sub χ]MnO[sub 3] films grown on SrTiO[sub 3](001) bicrystal substrates. Our results show that there is an elastic strain gradient at the artificial grain boundary, which decays over a length scale of ∼1 µm. The tensile strain at the interior of the grain—due to the lattice mismatch between La[sub l-χ]Sr[sub χ]MnO[sub 3] and SrTiO[sub 3]—relaxes as the film nears the grain boundary, yielding a grain boundary lattice constant which approaches the value of that in bulk La[sub l-χ]Sr[sub χ]MnO[sub 3]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]