Ferroelastic twin structures in epitaxial WO{sub 3} thin films
- Department of Physics, KAIST, Daejeon 34141 (Korea, Republic of)
- Korea Institute of Materials Science, Changwon 51508 (Korea, Republic of)
- School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052 (Australia)
- Department of Physics, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134 (Korea, Republic of)
- Graduate School of EEWS, KAIST, Daejeon 34141 (Korea, Republic of)
Tungsten trioxide is a binary oxide that has potential applications in electrochromic windows, gas sensors, photo-catalysts, and superconductivity. Here, we analyze the crystal structure of atomically flat epitaxial layers on YAlO{sub 3} single crystal substrates and perform nanoscale investigations of the ferroelastic twins revealing a hierarchical structure at multiple length scales. We have found that the finest stripe ferroelastic twin walls along pseudocubic 〈100〉 axes are associated with cooperative mosaic rotations of the monoclinic films and the larger stripe domains along pseudocubic 〈110〉 axes are created to reduce the misfit strain through a commensurate matching of an effective in-plane lattice parameter between film and substrate. The typical widths of the two fine and larger stripe domains increase with film thickness following a power law with scaling exponents of ∼0.6 and ∼0.4, respectively. We have also found that the twin structure can be readily influenced by illumination with an electron beam or a tip-based mechanical compression.
- OSTI ID:
- 22486279
- Journal Information:
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 107, Issue 25; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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