Short range biaxial strain relief mechanism within epitaxially grown BiFeO 3

Abstract

Lattice mismatch-induced biaxial strain effect on the crystal structure and growth mechanism is investigated for the BiFeO 3 films grown on La 0.6 Sr 0.4 MnO 3 /SrTiO 3 and YAlO 3 substrates. Nano-beam electron diffraction, structure factor calculation and x-ray reciprocal space mapping unambiguously confirm that the crystal structure within both of the BiFeO 3 thin films is rhombohedral by showing the rhombohedral signature Bragg’s reflections. Further investigation with atomic resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy reveals that while the ~1.0% of the lattice mismatch found in the BiFeO 3 grown on La 0.6 Sr 0.4 MnO 3 /SrTiO 3 is exerted as biaxial in-plane compressive strain with atomistically coherent interface, the ~6.8% of the lattice mismatch found in the BiFeO 3 grown on YAlO 3 is relaxed at the interface by introducing dislocations. The present result demonstrates the importance of: (1) identification of the epitaxial relationship between BFO and its substrate material to quantitatively evaluate the amount of the lattice strain within BFO film and (2) the atomistically coherent BFO/substrate interface for the lattice mismatch to exert the lattice strain.