Facile fabrication of micro-patterned LSMO films with unchanged magnetic properties by photosensitive sol-gel method on LaAlO3 substrates

Abstract We propose here a facile and inexpensive photosensitive sol-gel method to fabricate micro-patterned La 0.67 Sr 0.33 MnO 3 ( LSMO) films with c-axis orientation on (001) LaAlO 3 (LAO) single crystal substrates. The photosensitive LSMO sol-gel was first prepared using methanol as solvent, strontium acetate, manganese acetate and lanthanum nitrate as precursors, and 2,2'-Bipyridyl (Bpy) as chelating modifier. The sol-gel was photosensitive and was used to fabricate micro-patterned LSMO films directly in the absence of any photoresist. The as-prepared micro-patterned films exhibited regular microarray structure with smooth surface and clear edge. We also investigated the magnetic properties of LSMO films on LAO substrates. The overlapping of the magnetic momentum vs. temperature (M-T) curves as well the overlapping in the magnetic hysteresis loops of the micro-patterned and un-patterned LSMO films suggests that the photosensitive sol-gel method would be a promising technique to fabricate micro-patterned LSMO films without disturbing the original structure and functional properties.