Optical investigation of the metal-insulator transition in the manganitefilmswith the thickness dependence

Abstract

We investigated the optical response of La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 (LSMO) films which show the metal-insulator transition (MIT) with the film thickness dependence. By using spectroscopic ellipsometric technique we found that the optical spectra below the charge transfer gap exhibited the coherent-incoherent crossover behavior through MIT. The formation of the incoherent mode near 1.5&#8239

eV was reminiscent of the polaron absorption which had been widely observed in various manganites. We suggest that the electron-phonon coupling could be enhanced due to low dimensionality in the ultrathin LSMO film in consideration of orbital polarization.