Strain-induced phase arrangement in LaVO3 thin films

ORAL

Abstract

The perovskite oxide LaVO3 is an archetypical Mott insulator which undergoes a antiferromagnetic (AFM) orbital and spin order transition at ~140 K, concomitant with a structural distortion from the high temperature Pbnm structure 1. In this talk, we report on the arrangement of coexisting phases stabilized by epitaxial strain imposed by the substrate using a combination of synchrotron x-ray diffraction2, x-ray diffraction microscopy3 and scanning transmission electron microscopy. Coherently strained LaVO3 thin films were grown by hybrid molecular beam epitaxy (hMBE)4 on NdGaO3 and GdScO3. It is found that different order and phase arrangement occurs at room temperature and low temperatures at dramatically different length scales ranging from about 3 nm to 300 nm. We discuss the nature and origin of these ordered phases, which have not been observed in bulk LaVO3, in light of the structural constraints imposed by the substrate.

1. Bordet, P. et al. J. Solid State Chem. 106, 253–270 (1993).
2. Brahlek, M., et al. Appl. Phys. 1211, (2017).
3. Laanait, N. et al. J. Synchrotron Radiat. 21, 1252–1261 (2014).
4. Zhang, H.-T. et al. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 9, 12556–12562 (2017).

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Presenters

  • Jason Lapano

    Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, Materials Science, Pennsylvania State University

Authors

  • Jason Lapano

    Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, Materials Science, Pennsylvania State University

  • Matthew Brahlek

    Material Science, Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania State University, Physics, Pennsylvania State Univ, Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, Materials Science, Pennsylvania State University

  • Jacob Ruff

    CHESS, NIST Center for Neutron Research, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source, Cornell University

  • Nouamane Laanait

    Computational Sciences And Engineering Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Center for Nanophase Materials Science, , Oak Ridge National Lab

  • John Freeland

    Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne Natl Lab, Argonne National Lab, Argonne National Laboratory, APS, Argonne National Lab, X-ray Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Lab

  • Roman Engel-Herbert

    Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State Univ, Material Science, Pennsylvania State University, Physics, Pennsylvania State University, Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State Universtiy, Pennsylvania State University, Physics, Pennsylvania State Univ, Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, Materials Science, Pennsylvania State University