Epitaxial self-assembly of multiferroic nanostructures

Abstract

The morphology and structure of interfaces in PbTiO3–CoFe2O4 films on SrTiO3 substrates of various orientations are studied. It is found that for film with thickness more than 100 nm with columnar two-phase morphology, the average orientations of the interfaces between the phases reside on the {110}, {111}, and {112} planes for films normal to substrates oriented along ⟨001⟩, ⟨110⟩, and ⟨111⟩ correspondingly. These macroscopic interfaces consist of {111} nanofacets. The study of very thin film less than 30 nm shows that the interfaces between nanosize phases are {111} planes. Available theoretical results on morphology of multiferroic thin film nanostructure allow us to conclude that for thick films (>100 nm), two-phase columnar morphology (shape of constituent phases, their arrangement, and average crystallographic orientations of the interfaces) is essentially determined by the trend for minimization of elastic energy, while the trend to minimize the energy of interfaces results in faceting interfaces along the {111} planes. Possibility of long range ordering in phase arrangement is discussed.