Study of orthorhombic twins in epitaxial GdFeO3 thin films.

Abstract Thin films of GdFeO 3 (GdFO) have been grown on two (00 l) oriented single crystal substrates viz., LaAlO 3 and SrTiO 3 using pulsed laser ablation method. Phase purity of the prepared samples is confirmed from x-ray 2 θ − ω measurements. From the x-ray phi-scans and reciprocal space mapping measurements, it is observed that GdFO films are epitaxial and grow in (00 l) out-of-plane orientation. It is observed that the GdFO grows along the diagonal of the substrate cube with in-plane 90 o rotated orthorhombic twins for both the substrates. Magnetization data shows the signatures of Gd 3+ ordering and magnetic field induced spin re-orientation similar to that of bulk GdFO for both the substrates. However, surface morphology is found to be different for both the substrates resulting in considerable changes of O K -edge near absorption spectra. Highlights • Growth of GdFeO3 film with laser ablation on SrTiO3 & LaAlO3 substrate is reported. • Films grow epitaxially on both the substrates with two in-plane 90o domains. • Enhanced covalent mixing between O-2 p and Fe-3 d (t 2g) orbitals is observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]