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Misfit strain delivered from single-crystal substrates typically modifies the ground states of transition metal oxides, generating increasing interest in designing modern transducers and sensors. Here, we demonstrate that magnetotransport properties of La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 (LSMO) films were continuously tuned by uniaxial strain produced by a home-designed bending jig. The electrical conductivity and Curie temperature of LSMO films are enhanced by bending stresses. The resistivity of u-shape bended LSMO decays three times faster than that of n-shape bended LSMO as a response to the same magnitude of strain. The asymmetric magnetic states in uniaxially strained LSMO are attributed to the dual actions of Jahn–Teller distortion and strain gradient mediated flexoelectric fields in an adjacent ferroelectric layer. These findings of multi-field regulation in a single material provide a feasible means for developing flexible electronic and spintronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electronic phase transition in strongly correlated materials is extremely sensitive to the dimensionality and crystallographic orientations. Transition metal nitrides (TMNs) are seldom investigated due to the difficulty in fabricating high-quality and stoichiometric single crystals. In this Letter, we report the epitaxial growth and electronic properties of CrN films grown on different-oriented NdGaO3 (NGO) substrates. Astonishingly, CrN films grown on (110)-oriented NGO substrates maintain a metallic phase, whereas the CrN films grown on (010)-oriented NGO substrates are semiconducting. We attribute the unconventional electronic phase transitions in CrN films to the strain effects. The effective modulation of bandgap by the anisotropic strain triggers the metal-to-insulator transition consequently. This work provides a convenient approach to modify the electronic ground states of functional materials using anisotropic strain and further stimulates the investigations of TMNs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]