Vertical La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 nanorods tailored by high magnetic field assisted pulsed laser deposition

La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 (LCMO) thin films on (LaAlO3)0.3(Sr2AlTaO6)0.7 (001) [LSAT (001)] single crystal substrates have been prepared by high magnetic field assisted pulsed laser deposition (HMF-PLD) developed by ourselves. Uniformly sized and vertically aligned nanorod structures can be obtained under an applied high magnetic field above 5 T, and the dimension size of the nanorods can be manipulated by varying the applied magnetic field. It is found that the magnetic anisotropy is strongly correlated to the dimension size of the nanorods. A significantly enhanced low-field magnetoresistance (LFMR) of -36% under 0.5 T at 100 K can be obtained due to the enhanced carrier scattering at the vertical grain boundaries between the nanorods for the LCMO films. The growth mechanism of the nanorods has been also discussed, which can be attributed to the variation of deposition rate, adatom surface diffusion, and nucleation induced by the application of a high magnetic field in the film processing. The successful achievements of such vertical nanorod structures will provide an instructive route to investigate the physical nature of these nanostructures and achieve nanodevice manipulation.