Epitaxial Growth of Complex Metal Oxides

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The effects of strain on crystal structure and properties during epitaxial growth of oxides

A. Vailionis     Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

Abstract

Perovskite oxides with the general formula ABO₃ exhibit a very rich structural phase diagram that can be effectively controlled during epitaxial and coherent thin-film growth by an important tuning parameter: biaxial strain imposed by the crystalline substrate. In contrast to the heteroepitaxy of semiconductor materials where electronic or optical properties are tailored by stress-induced stretching or compressing of interatomic bonds, the ABO₃ perovskites present an additional degree of freedom: rotations and tilts of the BO₆ octahedral unit as another route of the mismatch strain accommodation. ...