Residual strain and texture in strontium-doped lanthanum manganite thin films

Thin films of La0.67Sr0.33 MnO3 (LSMO) have been deposited using liquid-del ivery metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). X-ray diffraction (X RD) 2 theta/theta scans showed that all the films has a cubic structure. St udies of the in-plane crystallographic orientations (pole figure) revealed an (0 0 1) preferred growth structure on LAO, a weak (1 1 0) texture on Y-Z rO2 (YSZ), a random texture on sapphire (SAP) and silicon (Si). Our attenti on is focused on residual strain and its deviations from linearity for epsi lon (phi,Psi) vs. sin(2)Psi plots. The strain evolution from 0<sin(2)<Psi>< 0.8 showed a curvature and a "snake-like" pattern. These anomalies are attr ibuted to texture and strain gradients. In-plane strain decreased as the la ttice mismatch increased and varied from 0.05 to 3.03% depending on the sub strate. An attempt is made to establish a relationship between lattice mism atch, growth process, and residual strain. (C) 2001 Kluwer Academic Publish ers.