Pressure-induced change in the electronic structure of epitaxially strained La1-x Srx MnO3 thin films

We report the observation of pressure-induced changes in the electronic structures of La1-x Srx MnO3 (LSMO) by hard x-ray photoemission spectroscopy. Application of compressive and tensile strains results in the formation of a gap at the Fermi level (EF) and suppression of spectral weight at EF, respectively, across magnetic phase transitions. In contrast, no detectable change is observed in the absence of phase transitions even upon application of pressure. These results indicate that the change in the electronic structure of LSMO does not originate from the lattice distortions alone, but is induced by subtle interplay among the lattice, magnetic, and orbital degrees of freedom.