  Due to the complex interplay of magnetic, structural, electronic, and orbital
degrees of freedom, biaxial strain is known to play an essential role in the
doped manganites. For coherently strained La(2/3)Ca(1/3)MnO(3) thin films grown
on SrTiO(3) substrates, we measured the magnetotransport properties both
parallel and perpendicular to the substrate and found an anomaly of the
electrical transport properties. Whereas metallic behavior is found within the
plane of biaxial strain, for transport perpendicular to this plane an
insulating behavior and non-linear current-voltage characteristics (IVCs) are
observed. The most natural explanation of this anisotropy is a strain induced
transition from an orbitally disordered ferromagnetic state to an orbitally
ordered state associated with antiferromagnetic stacking of ferromagnetic
manganese oxide planes.
