Anomalous strain relaxation behavior of Fe3O4∕MgO (100) heteroepitaxial system grown using molecular beam epitaxy

Strain relaxation studies in epitaxial magnetite (Fe3O4) thin films grown on MgO (100) substrates using high-resolution x-ray diffraction and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy reveal that the films remain fully coherent up to a thickness of 700nm. This thickness is much greater than t...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of applied physics 2006-10, Vol.100 (7)
Main Authors: Arora, S. K., Sofin, R. G. S., Shvets, I. V., Luysberg, M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Strain relaxation studies in epitaxial magnetite (Fe3O4) thin films grown on MgO (100) substrates using high-resolution x-ray diffraction and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy reveal that the films remain fully coherent up to a thickness of 700nm. This thickness is much greater than the critical thickness tc for strain relaxation estimated from mismatch strain. Anomalous strain relaxation behavior of Fe3O4∕MgO heteroepitaxy is attributed to the reduction in the effective stress experienced by the film due to the presence of antiphase boundaries (APBs) that enable the film to maintain coherency with the substrate at large thickness. However, the stress accommodation in the film depends upon the nature and density of the APBs.
ISSN:0021-8979
1089-7550
DOI:10.1063/1.2349468