Absence of long-range Ni/Mn ordering in ferromagnetic La2NiMnO6 thin films

Epitaxial La2NiMnO6 thin films have been grown on (001)-oriented SrTiO3 using the PLD technique. The thin films are semiconducting and FM with a TC close to 270K, a coercive field of 920Oe, and a saturation magnetization of 5muB per f.u. TEM, conducted at RT, reveals a majority phase having "I-centered" structure with a=c=1.4asub and b=2asub along with a minority phase-domains having "P-type" structure (asub being the lattice parameter of the perovskite structure). A discusion on the presence of Ni/Mn long-range ordering, in light of recent literature on double perovskites La2NiMnO6 is presented.