Critical thickness and orbital ordering in ultrathin La0.7Sr0.3MnO3   films
  Detailed analysis of transport, magnetism and x-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements on ultrathin La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 films with thicknesses from 3 to 70 unit cells resulted in the identification of a lower critical thickness for a non-metallic, non-ferromagnetic layer at the interface with the SrTiO3 (001) substrate of only 3 unit cells (~12 Angstrom). Furthermore, linear dichroism measurements demonstrate the presence of a preferred (x2-y2) in-plane orbital ordering for all layer thicknesses without any orbital reconstruction at the interface. A crucial requirement for the accurate study of these ultrathin films is a controlled growth process, offering the coexistence of layer-by-layer growth and bulk-like magnetic/transport properties. 
M. Huijben, L.W. Martin, Y.-H. Chu, M.B. Holcomb, P. Yu, G. Rijnders,   D.H.A. Blank, R. Ramesh