The biaxial and uniaxial magnetic anisotropy in epitaxial (100)-oriented La0.7(Sr, Ca)0.3MnO3 films on different substrates were measured by torque magnetometry in the range from T=20 K to room temperature. The biaxial anisotropy with easy axes 〈110〉 dominates and can be described by a cubic crystal anisotropy constant up to K1≈−104 J/m3. A tendency of increasing |K1| with increasing lattice constant c was explained by compressive stress. The uniaxial anisotropy was |KU|⩽103 J/m3 and explained by anisotropic stress not correlated to the crystal axes.

Epitaxial ferromagnetic manganite films have been sputtered on bicrystal substrates. Their magnetoresistance was measured as a function of magnetic field and temperature. The grain boundary magnetoresistance at low temperature is separated from the intrinsic magnetoresistance near the Curie temperature. The grain boundary magnetoresistance peaks at about 100 Oe and saturates at about 2 kOe. For a La0.8Sr0.2MnO3 film with a grain boundary angle θ=36.8° a field independent component r0=4.1×10−6 Ω cm2 was separated from a field-dependent component which has its maximum rH=2.3×10−6 Ω cm2 for H of order the coercive field.

Epitaxial ferromagnetic La0.8Sr0.2MnO3−δ films have been sputtered on SrTiO3 bicrystal substrates. Etched patterns crossing the bicrystal grain boundary are compared with identical patterns not crossing it. The films were annealed at different conditions and their magnetoresistance measured as a function of temperature T and of in plane magnetic field H strength and direction. Annealing at 900 °C was found to modify the grain boundary and to increase its magnetoresistance. For H=±80 Oe parallel to the grain boundary and T=32 K narrow magnetoresistance peaks of 60% height are measured. They are interpreted in the frame of an in plane magnetotunneling structure.

The magnetic anisotropy of (001) oriented La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 films of thickness t=7–156 nm, deposited on LaAlO3 substrates, was measured by torque magnetometry in the temperature range T=10–300 K. For t⩾50 nm and H rotating out of plane the anisotropy Ku agrees well with shape anisotropy. For thinner films, Ku is reduced and its sign is reversed for t=7 nm and T<70 K; this can be explained by a perpendicular anisotropy Kuε due to lattice strain. The crystal anisotropy constant K1 was determined from the biaxial in-plane anisotropy. At T=100 K K1 differed by no more than 50% from the mean value −8 kJ/m3 in the thickness region investigated. K1 was much less dependent on the thickness t and strain relaxation in the films than Kuε.

Stable platinum oxide films have been prepared through magnetron sputtering and have been analyzed on the bases of energy-sensitive microanalyses, x-ray diffraction, resistivity, and optical reflectance measurements. The complex dielectric function has been determined for various oxygen contents in the film covering the wave-number regime 50 cm−1–λ−1–50 000 cm−1. The vibrational properties are dominated through a strong band, centered at 765 cm−1, associated with a asymmetric stretching mode of the Pt—O bond. The films are amorphous, with chemical composition PtOx, where 1<x<2.1, and are considered as a homogeneous solid solution of PtO and PtO2. The materials system displays a conductor–insulator transition at x≥2, in connection with an optical band gap Eg of ∼1.2 eV in the fully oxidized state. The conduction mechanism over the whole range of compositions is thermally activated and is determined through a large density of localized states extending into the band gap. At x<2 the optical gap disappears, consistent with the semimetallic behavior of the materials system for this range of composition.