Effect of silver doping on the surface of La5/8Ca3/8MnO3 epitaxial films

Thin film manganese oxides (manganites) display remarkable properties, such as colossal magnetoresistance and charge ordered phases, and became a focal point of research in the past two decades owing to potential applications ranging from oxide spintronics to resistive switching-based memories. LaxCa1-xMnO3 (LCMO), a widely studied manganite, is known to substantially improve its transport properties when doped with Ag. However, despite the abundance of studies on LCMO, the effect of silver on the surface structure is unknown. Here, through in-situ methods, scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) is performed on La5/8Ca3/8MnO3 films grown by pulsed laser deposition. Films doped by silver, as confirmed by in-situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, display large-scale reconstructions, interpreted as being of type (root 10 x root 10)R18.4 degrees, while films lacking silver display a (root 2 x root 2)R45 degrees reconstruction that may be associated with a surface charge-ordered state. It is posited that the possible cause of the varied reconstructions is due to a vacancy ordering on top of the existing (root 2 x root 2)R45 degrees reconstruction. These studies highlight the influence of Ag on the surface structure, and therefore a route towards modifying the surface properties of manganites. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.