Nanoscale phase separation in quasi-uniaxial and biaxial strained multiferroic thin films

• Main Authors: Qi, Yajun, Huang, Chuanwei, Chen, Zuhuang, Luo, Zhenlin, Wang, Yiqian, Guo, Jun, Wang, Junling, Gao, Chen, Sritharan, Thirumany, Chen, Lang, White, Timothy John
• Other Authors: School of Materials Science & Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Materials
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/106101; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/20914
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Nanoscale phase separation was investigated in epitaxial strained BiFeO3thin films on LaAlO3 single crystal substrate. In biaxial strained thin films, nanoscale mixtures of the tetragonal-like and rhombohedral-like phases occur with a film thickness above 35 nm. For 10-30 nm ultrathin ones, tetragonal-like single phase is confirmed using synchrotron x-ray and the atomic force microscopy studies. However, nanoscale phase separations are still observed in quasi-uniaxial transmission electron microscopy foil specimens for those ultrathin films, indicating the phase separation emerges in a much smaller thickness in uniaxial constraint films than that in biaxial ones.