Epitaxial growth and the magnetic properties of orthorhombic YTiO3 thin films

TL;DR

This study reports the successful epitaxial growth of high-quality orthorhombic YTiO3 thin films on LaAlO3 substrates and investigates their magnetic properties, revealing a ferromagnetic transition at 30 K and a unique magnetic easy axis.

Contribution

It demonstrates a novel method for growing epitaxial YTiO3 thin films with distinct magnetic anisotropy, expanding understanding of their magnetic behavior in thin film form.

Findings

YTiO3 thin films exhibit ferromagnetism at 30 K.

The magnetic easy axis is along [1-10], different from single crystal.

Epitaxial growth achieved on LaAlO3 (110) substrates.

Abstract

High-quality YTiO3 thin films were grown on LaAlO3 (110) substrates at low oxygen pressures (<10-8 Torr) using pulsed laser deposition. The in-plane asymmetric atomic arrangements at the substrate surface allowed us to grow epitaxial YTiO3 thin films, which have an orthorhombic crystal structure with quite different a- and b-axes lattice constants. The YTiO3 film exhibited a clear ferromagnetic transition at 30 K with a saturation magnetization of about 0.7 uB/Ti. The magnetic easy axis was found to be along the [1-10] direction of the substrate, which differs from the single crystal easy axis direction, i.e., [001].