Present study reveals that the free energy landscape of the La5/8-yPryCa3/8MnO3 (LPCMO) system could be modified by elastic strain interaction in the epitaxial thin films. Epitaxial LPCMO thin films of various thicknesses are grown on LaAlO3 substrat
e by pulsed laser deposition. With increasing thickness, by virtue of island growth morphology, strain disorder is invoked in thin films during strain relaxation process. The length-scale of phase separation is found to be highly correlated with strain disorder. Magneto-transport measurements demonstrate that coherent strain stabilizes charge ordered insulating phase while strain disorder stabilizes metallic phase. Resistivity under cooling and heating in unequal field (CHUF) protocol exhibits lower value of freezing temperature for strain disordered films compared to bulk system. Raman spectroscopy reveals that the charge ordered insulating and ferromagnetic metallic phases are structurally dissimilar and possess monoclinic and rhombohedral like symmetries respectively. Interfaces between two phases strongly influence low temperature glassy metastable state resulting in different phase separation states in the LPCMO thin films.
