Formation and thickness evolution of periodic twin domains in manganite films grown on SrTiO3(001) substrates.
We present an extended synchrotron x-ray scattering study of the structure of thin manganite films grown on SrTiO3(001) substrates and reveal a new kind of misfit strain relaxation process which exploits twinning to adjust lattice mismatch. We show that this relaxation mechanism emerges in thin films as one-dimensional twinning waves which freeze out into a twin domain pattern as the manganite film continues to grow. A quantitative microscopic model which uses a matrix formalism is able to reproduce all x-ray features and provides a detailed insight into this novel relaxation mechanism. We further demonstrate how this twin angle pattern affects the transport properties in these functional films.
Gebhardt
U
U
Max-Planck-Institut für Metallforschung, Heisenbergstrasse 3, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany.
Kasper
N V
NV
Vigliante
A
A
Wochner
P
P
Dosch
H
H
Razavi
F S
FS
Habermeier
H-U
HU