Structural and optical properties of hexagonal and orthorhombic YMnO₃ thin films prepared by metal-organic decomposition method

Abstract

Hexagonal and orthorhombic YMnO3 thin films were prepared by metal-organic decomposition method, on (111) oriented yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) and off-axis SrTiO3 (001) substrates, respectively. Hexagonal YMnO3 thin film on YSZ (111) substrate exhibit high crystallinity with (000l) orientation and an in-plane epitaxial relationships of YSZ [112] // hexagonal YMnO3 [1010]. Spectroscopic ellipsometry shows that the optical constants of the hexagonal YMnO3 thin film are in good agreement with those of the bulk samples. On the other hand, orthorhombic YMnO3 thin film on off-axis SrTiO3 (001) substrate was oriented in (00l) and exhibited SrTiO3 [110] // orthorhombic YMnO3 [100] and SrTiO3 [110] // orthorhombic YMnO3 [010] epitaxial relationships from twinned structure with lattice distortion.