Tetragonal-tetragonal-monoclinic-rhombohedral transition: Strain relaxation of heavily compressed BiFeO3 epitaxial thin films

Z. Fu, Z. G. Yin*, N. F. Chen, X. W. Zhang, Y. J. Zhao, Y. M. Bai, Y. Chen, H. H. Wang, X. L. Zhang, J. L. Wu

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

BiFeO3 films with in-plane compressive strain of -3.5% were deposited on oxygen-deficient La0.3Sr0.7MnO 3-δ buffered SrTiO3(001) substrates. This highly strained BiFeO3 does not relax directly into its rhombohedral parent phase upon increasing the film thickness. Instead, a multi-step path involving structural transitions is observed. The misfit stress is first accommodated by the occurrence of true tetragonal BiFeO3 with c/a ratio of 1.23, then reduced by the transformation to the MC-type monoclinic structure, and finally alleviated through the MC-rhombohedral transition. Moreover, this process enables the formation of strain-driven morphotropic phase boundaries at a stress level much lower than the reported threshold of -4.5%.

Original languageEnglish
Article number052908
JournalApplied Physics Letters
Volume104
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 3 Feb 2014
Externally publishedYes

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