Reduced dead layers and magnetic anisotropy change in La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 membranes released from an SrTiO3 substrate

We investigate the magnetic properties of La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 (LSMO) membranes released from an SrTiO3 (STO) substrate by selectively etching an Sr4Al2O7 sacrificial buffer layer. The magnetic moment and Curie temperatures (TC) of the released LSMO membranes improve significantly over their substrate-bound counterparts. We attribute these enhancements to suppressing strain and oxygen octahedral rotations that are present in substrate-bound films. Moreover, comparing the magnetic hysteresis loops obtained with magnetic fields applied along several crystallographic orientations demonstrates enhanced (weakened) perpendicular (in-plane) magnetic anisotropy in the released LSMO membranes. Our results contribute to potential applications of released LSMO membranes toward flexible spintronics devices, where high spin polarization and TC are desired.