Probing mixed tetragonal/rhombohedral-like monoclinic phases in strained bismuth ferrite films by optical second harmonic generation

Journal Article

Kumar, A, S Denev, R.J Zeches, E Vlahos, N.J Podraza, A Melville, D.G Schlom, Ramamoorthy Ramesh, V Gopalan

10.1063/1.3483923

Epitaxial strain can induce the formation of morphotropic phase boundary in lead free ferroelectrics like bismuth ferrite, thereby enabling the coexistence of tetragonal and rhombohedral phases in the same film. The relative ratio of these phases is governed by the film thickness and theoretical studies suggest that there exists a monoclinic distortion of both the tetragonal as well as the rhombohedral unit cells due to imposed epitaxial strain. In this work we show that optical second harmonic generation can distinguish the tetragonal-like phase from the rhombohedral-like phase and enable detection of monoclinic distortion in only a pure tetragonal-like phase. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.

Applied Physics Letters

97

2010

00036951

cited By 28

Ramesh Lab