Issue 17, 2022

Strain enhancement due to oxygen vacancies in perovskite oxide films

Abstract

Control of lattice strain in epitaxial films of ABO3 perovskite oxides is crucial for modern understanding and applications of these scientifically and technologically important materials. Here, we show that oxygen vacancies have unique impacts on lattice strain in such films. We suggest that in the presence of substrate-imposed misfit in epitaxial or highly oriented films, the crystallographic alignment of anisotropic elastic dipole tensors of oxygen vacancies is energetically favorable. The dipolar alignment leads to an enhanced above-misfit magnitude of maximal lattice strain and to increased inhomogeneous strain or strain gradients. The vacancy-induced remarkably strong elastic effects are experimentally validated by varying the misfit strain and oxygen content in thin films of perovskite niobate (ANbO3) and titanate (ATiO3) ferroelectrics. It is anticipated that elastic effects of oxygen vacancies are relevant for controlling strain in epitaxial films of a broad range of functional oxides.

Graphical abstract: Strain enhancement due to oxygen vacancies in perovskite oxide films

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
15 Oct 2021
Accepted
31 Mar 2022
First published
31 Mar 2022
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2022,10, 6770-6777

Strain enhancement due to oxygen vacancies in perovskite oxide films

M. Tyunina, J. Levoska, O. Pacherova, T. Kocourek and A. Dejneka, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2022, 10, 6770 DOI: 10.1039/D1TC04969K

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