  We present a detailed study on the magnetic properties, including anisotropy,
reversal fields, and magnetization reversal processes, of well characterized
half-metallic epitaxial La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 (LSMO) thin films grown onto SrTiO3
(STO) substrates with three different surface orientations, i.e. (001), (110)
and (1-18). The latter shows step edges oriented parallel to the [110]
(in-plane) crystallographic direction. Room temperature high resolution
vectorial Kerr magnetometry measurements have been performed at different
applied magnetic field directions in the whole angular range. In general, the
magnetic properties of the LSMO films can be interpreted with just the uniaxial
term with the anisotropy axis given by the film morphology, whereas the
strength of this anisotropy depends on both structure and film thickness. In
particular, LSMO films grown on nominally flat (110)-oriented STO substrates
presents a well defined uniaxial anisotropy originated from the existence of
elongated in-plane [001]-oriented structures, whereas LSMO films grown on
nominally flat (001)-oriented STO substrates show a weak uniaxial magnetic
anisotropy with the easy axis direction aligned parallel to residual substrate
step edges. Elongated structures are also found for LSMO films grown on vicinal
STO(001) substrates. These films present a well-defined uniaxial magnetic
anisotropy with the easy axis lying along the step edges and its strength
increases with the LSMO thickness. It is remarkable that this step-induced
uniaxial anisotropy has been found for LSMO films up to 120 nm thickness. Our
results are promising for engineering novel half-metallic magnetic devices that
exploit tailored magnetic anisotropy.
