Oxygen-driven anisotropic transport in ultra-thin manganite films

Transition metal oxides have a range of unique properties due to coupling of charge, spin, orbital and lattice degrees of freedom and nearly degenerate multiple ground states. These properties make them interesting for applications and for fundamental investigations. Here we report a new phase with abnormal transport anisotropy in La(0.7)Sr(0.3)MnO3 ultra-thin films under large tensile strain. This anisotropy is absent in films under smaller tensile strain or compressive strain. Furthermore, thickness and magnetic-field-dependent experiments suggest that the tensile-strain-induced two-dimensional character is crucial for the observed phenomena. X-ray absorption spectroscopy results indicate that this anisotropy is likely driven by O 2p orbital, which hybridizes with Mn 3d. Ab initio calculations confirm this result. Our results may help to understand the anisotropic transport behaviour observed in other systems.