Crystal texture selection in epitaxies of orthorhombic antiferromagnetic YMnO3 films

The orthorhombic phase of YMnO3 has been epitaxially stabilized on SrTiO3 single crystal substrates. Changing the substrate orientation, the out-of-plane orientation of the epitaxial films can be tuned to (001), (101), or (100). Depending on the orientation, the films present varied crystal domain structures and lattice strains. Single domain YMnO3(100) films have been grown on SrTiO3(110) substrates, whereas they present two and three crystal variants on SrTiO3(001) and SrTiO3(111), respectively. Epitaxial stress in each domain is anisotropic, tensile in one direction and compressive in the other. It has consequences in the texture selection when domains with different out-of-plane orientation can grow epitaxially. Antiferromagnetism of YMnO3 films has been confirmed by measuring the exchange bias field induced in an underlying ferromagnetic SrRuO3 layer.