Strong tunability of epitaxial relationship and reconstruction at improper ferroelectric interface

Abstract

The atomic structures at epitaxial film-substrate interfaces determine scalability of thin films and can result in new phenomena. However, it is challenging to control the interfacial structures since they are decided by the most stable atomic bonding. In this work, we report strong tunability of the epitaxial interface of improper ferroelectric hexagonal ferrites deposited on spinel ferrites. The selection of two interface types, related by a 90 deg rotation of in-plane epitaxial relations and featured by disordered and hybridized reconstructions respectively, can be achieved by growth conditions, stacking sequences, and spinel compositions. While the disordered type suppresses the primary K3 structure distortion and ferroelectricity in hexagonal ferrites, the hybridized type is more coherent with the distortion with minimal suppression. This tunable interfacial structure provides critical insight on controlling interfacial clamping and may offer a solution for the long-standing problem of practical critical thickness in improper ferroelectrics.

References in corpus (12)

• Magnetic Structure and Ordering of Multiferroic Hexagonal LuFeO3
• Multiferroic hexagonal ferrites (h-RFeO${}_3$, R=Y, Dy-Lu): an experimental review
• Absence of Critical Thickness in an Ultrathin Improper Ferroelectric Film
• Voltage-based magnetization switching and reading in magnetoelectric spin-orbit nanodevices
• Tuning the Magnetic Ordering Temperature of Hexagonal Ferrites by Structural Distortion Control
• Epitaxy of hexagonal ABO${}_3$ quantum materials
• Epitaxial integration of improper ferroelectric h-YMnO${}_3$ thin films in heterostructures
• Effect of interface on epitaxy and magnetism in h-RFeO3/Fe3O4/Al2O3 films (R=Lu, Yb)
• Improper ferroelectricity in ultrathin hexagonal ferrites film
• Recent Progress on Multiferroic Hexagonal Rare-Earth Ferrites (h-RFeO3, R = Y,Dy-Lu)
• Dual mechanisms for transient capacitance anomaly in improper ferroelectrics
• Enhance Ferroelectric Structural Distortion via Doping Ca in Epitaxial h-Lu1-xCaxMnO3 Thin Films