This paper presents structural, magnetic and electrical properties of 40 nm thick La_0.7Sr_0.3MnO₃ (LSMO) thin films deposited on vicinal (001) SrTiO₃ susbrates. The vicinal angles were 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10° from the [001] direction towards [110]. Structural properties were studied by X-ray diffraction, which indicated that the LSMO films grew with their (001) axis coincident with the (001) axis of the substrate. The surface morphology was carefully studied by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy (STM). The root mean square roughness measured in 2 µm x 2 µm images was in the 0.132 - 0.328 nm range, which is comparable to what is obtained on (100) SrTiO₃. STM confirmed the AFM pictures, showing regular steps of width in the 20 - 50 nm range. SQUID magnetometer measurements revealed a Curie temperature of 350 K and Kerr Magneto-Optical microscopy enabled the magnetic domain imaging. As previously reported in [1] for 10°, an uniaxial easy magnetization direction was obtained for angles above 4°, with the easy axis along the steps. In the case of 10° substrates, the magnetization reversal process was studied in both easy and hard directions. It occurs by propagation of magnetic domain walls in the easy axis direction while it shows a coherent reversal process in the hard direction. Finally, resistivity versus temperature characteristics in a magnetic field of 7 T and preliminary 1/f noise measurements will be presented for bias currents along and perpendicular to the step direction. Devices making use of the anisotropy of the magnetization are envisaged for low field magnetometry.
[1] M. Mathews et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 87 242507 (2005)

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