TY - JOUR
T1 - Evidence of Mn-Ion Structural Displacements Correlated with Oxygen Vacancies in La0.7Sr0.3MnO3Interfacial Dead Layers
AU - Rajak, Piu
AU - Knez, Daniel
AU - Chaluvadi, Sandeep Kumar
AU - Orgiani, Pasquale
AU - Rossi, Giorgio
AU - Méchin, Laurence
AU - Ciancio, Regina
N1 - Funding Information:
This work has received funding from the EU-H2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 654360 having benefitted from the access provided by CNR-IOM in Trieste within the framework of the NFFA-Europe Transnational Access Activity (proposal ID334) and performed in the framework of the Nanoscience Foundry and Fine Analysis (NFFA-MIUR Italy Progetti Internazionali) facility. Advanced TEM experiments have been performed under the support of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 823717-ESTEEM3. E. Cociancich is gratefully acknowledged for the TEM specimen preparation. P.R. acknowledges the receipt of a fellowship from the ICTP Programme for Training and Research in Italian Laboratories, Trieste, Italy. D.K. acknowledges the financial support by the “Zukunftsfonds Steiermark” for funding of the K2 camera.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.
PY - 2021/11/24
Y1 - 2021/11/24
N2 - The properties of half-metallic manganite thin films depend on the composition and structure in the atomic scale, and consequently, their potential functional behavior can only be based on fine structure characterization. By combining advanced transmission electron microscopy, electron energy loss spectroscopy, density functional theory calculations, and multislice image simulations, we obtained evidence of a 7 nm-thick interface layer in La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 (LSMO) thin films, compatible with the formation of well-known dead layers in manganites, with an elongated out-of-plane lattice parameter and structural and electronic properties well distinguished from the bulk of the film. We observed, for the first time, a structural shift of Mn ions coupled with oxygen vacancies and a reduced Mn valence state within such layer. Understanding the correlation between oxygen vacancies, the Mn oxidation state, and Mn-ion displacements is a prerequisite to engineer the magnetotransport properties of LSMO thin films.
AB - The properties of half-metallic manganite thin films depend on the composition and structure in the atomic scale, and consequently, their potential functional behavior can only be based on fine structure characterization. By combining advanced transmission electron microscopy, electron energy loss spectroscopy, density functional theory calculations, and multislice image simulations, we obtained evidence of a 7 nm-thick interface layer in La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 (LSMO) thin films, compatible with the formation of well-known dead layers in manganites, with an elongated out-of-plane lattice parameter and structural and electronic properties well distinguished from the bulk of the film. We observed, for the first time, a structural shift of Mn ions coupled with oxygen vacancies and a reduced Mn valence state within such layer. Understanding the correlation between oxygen vacancies, the Mn oxidation state, and Mn-ion displacements is a prerequisite to engineer the magnetotransport properties of LSMO thin films.
KW - aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy
KW - dead layer
KW - density functional theory (DFT)
KW - EELS and EDS
KW - multislice image simulation
KW - oxygen vacancy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85119426165&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/acsami.1c15599
DO - 10.1021/acsami.1c15599
M3 - Article
C2 - 34758616
AN - SCOPUS:85119426165
SN - 1944-8244
VL - 13
SP - 55666
EP - 55675
JO - ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
JF - ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
IS - 46
ER -