Thin films of La 0.7 Sr 0.3 MnO 3 on MgO show a metal insulator transition and colossal magnetoresistance. The shape of this transition can be explained by intrinsic spatial inhomogeneities, which give rise to a domain structure of conducting and insulating domains at the sub micrometer scale. These domains then undergo a percolation transition.The tunneling conductance and tunneling gap measured by scanning tunneling spectroscopy were used to distinguish and visualize these domains.

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The crossover in kinetic roughening of thin films from a particle-character-dominated regime to continuous growth behavior has been observed in this work. This has been accomplished by atomic force microscopy investigations of pulsed laser deposited amorphous organic films with thicknesses ranging from several nanometers to more than 4 microm. The early-stage random-deposition-like processes end once a closed layer is formed, which grows without saturation on the characteristic length scales. In addition, the influence of oblique film deposition has been examined and interpreted.

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Morphology evolution of thin film growth can be quantitatively modeled by employing rate equations for two-dimensional, single-valued functions within a treatment of small perturbations. This description can be expected to be valid in an intermediate film thickness regime, where substrate influences and three-dimensional effects are minor. The breakdown of the mathematical description in its upper film thickness limit is systematically investigated by a detailed comparison of experiments and simulation. Possible reasons for the failure are discussed and improvements are suggested.