Growth, domain structure, and magnetic properties of CaMnO3(110) and La0.7Ca0.3MnO3(110) layers synthesized on hexagonal YMnO3(0001)

Abstract

Oxide heterostructures based on cubic perovskite have been studied widely but there has been little interest in the combination of different polymorphs, such as hexagonal and cubic manganites, into a single heterostructure. This paper reports the growth of heterostructures composed of two manganite compounds with different in-plane lattice types, cubic CaMnO₃ (CMO) and hexagonal YMnO₃ (YMO), via pulsed laser deposition. The CMO layer grew on the YMO(0001) plane despite the lattice type mismatch. In this heterostructure, the YMO(0001) and CMO(110) planes were parallel to the interface, whereas YMO(−2110) and CMO(−11−2) were perpendicular to it, satisfying YMO(−2110)//CMO(−11−2). This approach to combine two compounds with a lattice type mismatch enables the construction of YMO/La_0.7Ca_0.3MnO₃ (LCMO)/YMO trilayers, which are potential multiferroic systems. Such a heterostructure has an interface structure and domain patterns that cannot be realized in conventional heterostructures, offering a unique opportunity to observe emergent phenomena.