title: Competing misfit relaxation mechanisms in epitaxial correlated oxides.
abstract: Strain engineering of functional properties in epitaxial thin films of strongly correlated oxides exhibiting octahedral-framework structures is hindered by the lack of adequate misfit relaxation models. Here we present unreported experimental evidence of a four-stage hierarchical development of octahedral-framework perturbations resulting from a progressive imbalance between electronic, elastic, and octahedral tilting energies in La(0.7)Sr(0.3)MnO(3) epitaxial thin films grown on SrTiO(3) substrates. Electronic softening of the Mn-O bonds near the substrate leads to the formation of an interfacial layer clamped to the substrate with strongly degraded magnetotransport properties, i.e., the so-called dead layer, while rigid octahedral tilts become relevant at advanced growth stages without significant effects on charge transport and magnetic ordering.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona, CSIC, Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, E-08193 Bellaterra, Catalonia, Spain. felip@icmab.es
authors.forename: Felip
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sandiumenge
authors.forename: José
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Santiso
authors.forename: Lluís
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Balcells
authors.forename: Zorica
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Konstantinovic
authors.forename: Jaume
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Roqueta
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pomar
authors.forename: Juan Pedro
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Espinós
authors.forename: Benjamín
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Martínez