Structural and optical properties of hexagonal and orthorhombic YMnO3 thin films prepared by metal-organic decomposition method

Hexagonal and orthorhombic YMnO3 thin films were prepared by the metal-organic decomposition method, on (111) oriented yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) and off-axis SrTiO3 (001) substrates, respectively. Hexagonal YMnO3 thin film on a YSZ (111) substrate exhibits high crystallinity with (000 l) orientation and in-plane epitaxial relationships of YSZ [11 2̅]//hexagonal YMnO3 [10 1̅ 0]. Spectroscopic ellipsometry shows that the optical constants of the hexagonal YMnO3 thin film are in good agreement with those of the bulk samples. On the other hand, orthorhombic YMnO3 thin film on the off-axis SrTiO3 (001) substrate was oriented in (00 l) and exhibited SrTiO3 [110]//orthorhombic YMnO3 [100] and SrTiO3 [110]//orthorhombic YMnO3 [010] epitaxial relationships from the twinned structure with lattice distortion.