Structural characterization of PrVO3 epitaxial thin films

TL;DR

This study investigates the structural properties of PrVO3 epitaxial thin films on SrTiO3 substrates, revealing domain orientations, symmetry lowering from orthorhombic to monoclinic, and the influence of growth conditions on strain and structure.

Contribution

It provides detailed structural characterization of PrVO3 thin films and demonstrates how growth parameters can tune film strain and symmetry, offering new control methods beyond substrate mismatch.

Findings

Identification of two domain orientations in PrVO3 films.

Observation of symmetry lowering from orthorhombic to monoclinic.

Demonstration of growth condition influence on film strain and structure.

Abstract

Rare earth perovskite oxides constitute a wide family of materials presenting functional proper- ties strongly coupled to their crystalline structure. Here, we report on the experimental results on epitaxial PrVO3 deposited on SrTiO3 single crystal substrates by pulsed laser deposition. By com- bining advanced structural characterization tools, we have observed that the PVO unrelaxed film structure grown on STO, is characterized by two kinds of oriented domains whose epitaxial relations are: (i) PrVO3[110]o//SrTiO3[001]c and PrVO3[001]o//SrTiO3[100]c, (ii) PrVO3[110]o//SrTiO3[001]c and PrVO3[001]o//SrTiO3[010]c. We have also measured reciprocal space maps. From these results, we have determined that the PVO film epitaxy on STO imposes a lowering of the PVO structure symmetry from orthorhombic (Pbnm) to monoclinic (P21/m). We show, the nominal strain induced by the substrate being constant, that the obtained film structure depends on both growth oxygen and temperature. Thus, by finely controlling the deposition conditions, we could tune the strain experienced by PrVO3 thin film. These results show an alternative to substrate mismatch as a path to control the strain and structure of PVO films.