Stabilization of YMnO₃ in a Perovskite Structure as a Thin Film

Using pulsed laser deposition (PLD), metastable perovskite YMnO3 films were grown from a hexagonal YMnO3 target. The stabilization of the metastable phase is a result of the structural similarity between it and the perovskite substrates. X-ray and electron diffraction confirm the films' epitaxial nature but evince that the orientation and residual strains depend on the substrate. The implication of these findings is that PLD is a simple synthetic approach to stabilizing new, more complex, metastable perovskites.