Strain-induced single-domain growth of epitaxial SrRu O3 layers on SrTi O3: A high-temperature x-ray diffraction study

Abstract

Temperature dependent structural phase transitions of SrRu O3 thin films epitaxially grown on SrTi O3 (001) single crystal substrates have been studied using high-resolution x-ray diffraction. In contrast to bulk SrRu O3, coherently strained epitaxial layers do not display cubic symmetry up to ∼730 °C and remain tetragonal. The cause of this behavior is believed to be the compressive strain in the SrRu O3 layer due to the lattice mismatch with SrTi O3 substrate due to lattice mismatch. The tetragonal symmetry during growth explains the single domain growth on miscut SrTi O3 substrates with step edges running along the [100] or [010] direction. © 2007 American Institute of Physics.