Microstructural Characteristics of La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 Films and Multilayers

La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 (LCMO) films and La0.7Ca0.3MnO3/Gd0.7Ca0.3MnO3 (LCMO/GCMO) multilayers have been prepared by pulsed laser deposition. The microstructures of both systems were investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The main structure of the films and the multilayers was monoclinic with a unit cell of size 2ap x-2ap. x -2ap, where ap is the lattice constant of single perovskite crystal. The LCMO films were composed of three-dimension multitwinning domains, while the LCMO/GCMO multilayers showed two-domain structure. In LCMO/GCMO multilayers, LCMO layers were coherent with GCMO layers and the interfaces between LCMO and GCMO layers were free from mismatch dislocation, which resulted in highly strained multilayerd structures.