DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Three-dimensional atomic scale electron density reconstruction of octahedral tilt epitaxy in functional perovskites

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [1];  [4];  [1]
  1. Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)
  2. Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)
  3. Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States); Kavli Inst. at Cornell for Nanoscale Science, Ithaca, NY (United States)
  4. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Octahedral tilts are the most ubiquitous distortions in perovskite-related structures that can dramatically influence ferroelectric, magnetic, and electronic properties; yet the paradigm of tilt epitaxy in thin films is barely explored. Non-destructively characterizing such epitaxy in three-dimensions for low symmetry complex tilt systems composed of light anions is a formidable challenge. Here we demonstrate that the interfacial tilt epitaxy can transform ultrathin calcium titanate, a non-polar earth-abundant mineral, into high-temperature polar oxides that last above 900 K. The comprehensive picture of octahedral tilts and polar distortions is revealed by reconstructing the three-dimensional electron density maps across film-substrate interfaces with atomic resolution using coherent Bragg rod analysis. The results are complemented with aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy,film superstructure reflections, and are in excellent agreement with density functional theory. Conclusively, the study could serve as a broader template for non-destructive, three-dimensional atomic resolution probing of complex low symmetry functional interfaces.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
1503283
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 9; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (103)

Unleashing Strain Induced Ferroelectricity in Complex Oxide Thin Films via Precise Stoichiometry Control journal September 2016
Tuning the Structure of Nickelates to Achieve Two-Dimensional Electron Conduction journal February 2014
Interfacial Octahedral Rotation Mismatch Control of the Symmetry and Properties of SrRuO 3 journal June 2016
Materials science: Enter the oxides journal May 2009
A high-mobility electron gas at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 heterointerface journal January 2004
Improper ferroelectricity in perovskite oxide artificial superlattices journal April 2008
Three-dimensional imaging of dislocations in a nanoparticle at atomic resolution journal March 2013
Observation of polar vortices in oxide superlattices journal January 2016
Polar metals by geometric design journal April 2016
Atomically engineered ferroic layers yield a room-temperature magnetoelectric multiferroic journal September 2016
Large surface relaxation in the organic semiconductor tetracene journal November 2014
Whither the oxide interface journal January 2012
Controlled lateral anisotropy in correlated manganite heterostructures by interface-engineered oxygen octahedral coupling journal March 2016
Tuning magnetic anisotropy by interfacially engineering the oxygen coordination environment in a transition metal oxide journal March 2016
Direct determination of epitaxial interface structure in Gd2O3 passivation of GaAs journal October 2002
Atomic-scale mapping of quantum dots formed by droplet epitaxy journal September 2009
Control of the metal–insulator transition in vanadium dioxide by modifying orbital occupancy journal September 2013
Origins of bad-metal conductivity and the insulator–metal transition in the rare-earth nickelates journal March 2014
La-doped BaTiO 3 heterostructures: Compensating the polarization discontinuity journal December 2013
Octahedral rotations in strained LaAlO 3 /SrTiO 3 (001) heterostructures journal February 2014
Impact of symmetry on the ferroelectric properties of CaTiO3 thin films journal April 2015
Atomic imaging and direct phase retrieval using anomalous surface x-ray diffraction journal June 2012
Sub-Å Resolution Electron Density Analysis of the Surface of Organic Rubrene Crystals journal February 2010
Generalized Gradient Approximation Made Simple journal October 1996
Superconducting Interfaces Between Insulating Oxides journal August 2007
Orbital Reconstruction and Covalent Bonding at an Oxide Interface journal November 2007
Beyond crystallography: Diffractive imaging using coherent x-ray light sources journal April 2015
Interface Physics in Complex Oxide Heterostructures journal March 2011
Strain Tuning of Ferroelectric Thin Films journal August 2007
Enhancement of ferroelectricity at metal/oxide interfaces text January 2008
Anomalous Expansion of the Copper-Apical Oxygen Distance in Superconducting La$_{2}$CuO$_{4}$ - La$_{1.55}$Sr$_{0.45}$CuO$_{4}$ Bilayers text January 2009
Octahedral rotation-induced ferroelectricity in cation ordered perovskites text January 2011
Why Are There So Few Perovskite Ferroelectrics? text January 2013
Experimental demonstration of hybrid improper ferroelectricity and presence of abundant charged walls in (Ca,Sr)$_{3}$Ti$_{2}$O$_{7}$ crystals text January 2014
Artificial two-dimensional polar metal at room temperature text January 2018
Unleashing Strain Induced Ferroelectricity in Complex Oxide Thin Films via Precise Stoichiometry Control journal September 2016
Octahedral Rotation-Induced Ferroelectricity in Cation Ordered Perovskites journal April 2012
Tuning the Structure of Nickelates to Achieve Two-Dimensional Electron Conduction journal February 2014
Direct determination of epitaxial film and interface structure: Gd2O3 on GaAs (100) journal August 2003
Polar octahedral rotations: A path to new multifunctional materials journal November 2012
Observation of Quasi-Two-Dimensional Polar Domains and Ferroelastic Switching in a Metal, Ca 3 Ru 2 O 7 journal April 2018
Interfacial Octahedral Rotation Mismatch Control of the Symmetry and Properties of SrRuO 3 journal June 2016
Continuously Tuning Epitaxial Strains by Thermal Mismatch journal January 2018
Why Are There So Few Perovskite Ferroelectrics? journal May 2013
Materials science: Enter the oxides journal May 2009
A high-mobility electron gas at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 heterointerface journal January 2004
Improper ferroelectricity in perovskite oxide artificial superlattices journal April 2008
Three-dimensional structure determination from a single view journal December 2009
Three-dimensional imaging of dislocations in a nanoparticle at atomic resolution journal March 2013
Observation of polar vortices in oxide superlattices journal January 2016
Polar metals by geometric design journal April 2016
Atomically engineered ferroic layers yield a room-temperature magnetoelectric multiferroic journal September 2016
Interface engineering of quantum Hall effects in digital transition metal oxide heterostructures journal September 2011
Large surface relaxation in the organic semiconductor tetracene journal November 2014
Enhancement of ferroelectricity at metal–oxide interfaces journal April 2009
Emergent phenomena at oxide interfaces journal January 2012
Whither the oxide interface journal January 2012
Experimental demonstration of hybrid improper ferroelectricity and the presence of abundant charged walls in (Ca,Sr)3Ti2O7 crystals journal January 2015
Extreme light journal December 2015
Controlled lateral anisotropy in correlated manganite heterostructures by interface-engineered oxygen octahedral coupling journal March 2016
Tuning magnetic anisotropy by interfacially engineering the oxygen coordination environment in a transition metal oxide journal March 2016
Direct determination of epitaxial interface structure in Gd2O3 passivation of GaAs journal October 2002
Atomic-scale mapping of quantum dots formed by droplet epitaxy journal September 2009
Control of the metal–insulator transition in vanadium dioxide by modifying orbital occupancy journal September 2013
Origins of bad-metal conductivity and the insulator–metal transition in the rare-earth nickelates journal March 2014
Artificial two-dimensional polar metal at room temperature journal April 2018
Electronic structure of AlFeN films exhibiting crystallographic orientation change from c- to a-axis with Fe concentrations and annealing effect journal February 2020
La-doped BaTiO 3 heterostructures: Compensating the polarization discontinuity journal December 2013
Octahedral rotations in strained LaAlO 3 /SrTiO 3 (001) heterostructures journal February 2014
Impact of symmetry on the ferroelectric properties of CaTiO3 thin films journal April 2015
Anomalous expansion of the copper-apical-oxygen distance in superconducting cuprate bilayers journal April 2010
Interface control of bulk ferroelectric polarization journal May 2012
The limits of ultrahigh-resolution x-ray mapping: estimating uncertainties in thin-film and interface structures determined by phase retrieval methods journal April 2012
Atomic imaging of thin films with surface x-ray diffraction: introducing DCAF journal October 2008
Atomic imaging and direct phase retrieval using anomalous surface x-ray diffraction journal June 2012
Projector augmented-wave method journal December 1994
Efficient iterative schemes for ab initio total-energy calculations using a plane-wave basis set journal October 1996
Strain-induced ferroelectricity in orthorhombic CaTiO 3 from first principles journal June 2009
Phenomenological thermodynamic potential for CaTiO 3 single crystals journal February 2012
Strain-induced ferroelectricity and spin-lattice coupling in SrMn O 3 thin films journal June 2018
Sub-Å Resolution Electron Density Analysis of the Surface of Organic Rubrene Crystals journal February 2010
Generalized Gradient Approximation Made Simple journal October 1996
Structural Basis for the Conducting Interface between LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 journal October 2007
Interface-induced phenomena in magnetism journal June 2017
Three-dimensional imaging of crystal defects by `topo-tomography' journal September 2001
GenX : an extensible X-ray reflectivity refinement program utilizing differential evolution journal November 2007
Simple ways of determining perovskite structures journal November 1975
The classification of tilted octahedra in perovskites journal November 1972
Superconducting Interfaces Between Insulating Oxides journal August 2007
Oxide Interfaces--An Opportunity for Electronics journal March 2010
Dimensionality Control of Electronic Phase Transitions in Nickel-Oxide Superlattices journal May 2011
High-Energy Surface X-ray Diffraction for Fast Surface Structure Determination journal January 2014
Beyond crystallography: Diffractive imaging using coherent x-ray light sources journal April 2015
Interface Physics in Complex Oxide Heterostructures journal March 2011
Strain Tuning of Ferroelectric Thin Films journal August 2007
Control of octahedral connectivity in perovskite oxide heterostructures: An emerging route to multifunctional materials discovery journal March 2012
La-doped BaTiO3 heterostructures: Compensating the polarization discontinuity text January 2013
Three-dimensional structure determination from a single view text January 2009
Octahedral rotation-induced ferroelectricity in cation ordered perovskites text January 2011
Interface engineering of quantum Hall effects in digital transition metal oxide heterostructures text January 2011
Dimensionality Control of Electronic Phase Transitions in Nickel-Oxide Superlattices text January 2011
Origins of bad metal conductivity and the insulator-metal transition in the rare-earth nickelates text January 2013
Experimental demonstration of hybrid improper ferroelectricity and presence of abundant charged walls in (Ca,Sr)$_{3}$Ti$_{2}$O$_{7}$ crystals text January 2014

Cited By (2)

Designing Optimal Perovskite Structure for High Ionic Conduction journal November 2019
Interfacial Octahedral Manipulation Imparts Hysteresis‐Free Metal to Insulator Transition in Ultrathin Nickelate Heterostructure journal July 2019