Composition dependence of charge and magnetic length scales in mixed valence manganite thin films

Mixed-valence manganese oxides present striking properties like the colossal magnetoresistance, metal-insulator transition (MIT) that may result from coexistence of ferromagnetic, metallic and insulating phases. Percolation of such phase coexistence in the vicinity of MIT leads to first-order transition in these manganites. However the length scales over which the electronic and magnetic phases are separated across MIT which appears compelling for bulk systems has been elusive in (La(1−y)Pr(y))(1−x)Ca(x)MnO(3) films. Here we show the in-plane length scale over which charge and magnetism are correlated in (La(0.4)Pr(0.6))(1−x)Ca(x)MnO(3) films with x = 0.33 and 0.375, across the MIT temperature. We combine electrical transport (resistance) measurements, x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD), and specular/off-specular x-ray resonant magnetic scattering (XRMS) measurements as a function of temperature to elucidate relationships between electronic, magnetic and morphological structure of the thin films. Using off-specular XRMS we obtained the charge-charge and charge-magnetic correlation length of these LPCMO films across the MIT. We observed different charge-magnetic correlation length for two films which increases below the MIT. The different correlation length shown by two films may be responsible for different macroscopic (transport and magnetic) properties.