title: Strain-induce shift of the crystal-field splitting of SrTiO₃ embedded in scandate multilayers.
abstract: Strained SrTiO₃ layers have become of interest, since the paraelectric-to-ferroelectric transition temperature can be increased to room temperature. A linear relationship between strain and energy splitting of the fundamental transitions in the fine structure of Ti L(₂,₃) and O K edges is observed, that can be exploited to measure strain from electronic transitions, complementary to measuring local strain directly via high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) images. In particular, for both methods, the geometrical phase analysis performed on high-resolution images and the measurement of the energy splitting by energy loss spectroscopy, tensile strain of SrTiO₃ layers was measured when grown on DyScO₃ and GdScO₃ substrates. The effect of strain on the electron loss near edge structure (ELNES) of the Ti L(₂,₃) edge in comparison to unstrained samples is analyzed. Ab initio calculations of the Ti L(₂,₃) and O K edge show a linear variation of the crystal field splitting with strain. Calculated and experimental values of the crystal field splitting show a very good agreement.
authors.affiliation: Ernst Ruska-Centre and Institut für Festkörperforschung, Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany. avilad@quim.ucm.es
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ávila-Brande
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Boese
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Houben
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schubert
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Luysberg