Studies on strain relaxation of La0.5Ba0.5MnO3 film by normal and grazing incidence X-ray diffraction

Perovskite manganite La0.5Ba0.5MnO3 (LBMO) films were deposited on (001)-oriented single-crystal SrTiO3 (STO) substrates by pulsed laser deposition. High-resolution X-ray diffraction and grazing incidence X-ray diffraction techniques were applied to characterize the crystal structure and lattice strain of LBMO films. The in-plane and out-of-plane growth orientations of LBMO films with respect to substrate surface have been studied. The epitaxial orientation relationship LBMO (001) [100] //STO (001) [100] exists at the LBMO/STO interface. The lattice strain of LBMO film begins to relax with the thickness of LBMO film up to 12 nm. When the thickness is further increased up to 43 nm, the film is in fully strain-relaxed state. Jahn–Teller strain plays an important role in LBMO/STO system. The mechanism for strain relaxation is in accordance with that of tetragonal distortion.