Temperature and thickness evolution and epitaxial breakdown in   highly-strained BiFeO3 thin films
  We present the temperature- and thickness-dependent structural and morphological evolution of strain induced transformations in highly-strained epitaxial BiFeO3 films deposited on LaAlO3 (001) substrates. Using high-resolution X-ray diffraction and temperature-dependent scanning-probe-based studies we observe a complex temperature- and thickness-dependent evolution of phases in this system. A thickness-dependent transformation from a single monoclinically distorted tetragonal-like phase to a complex mixed-phase structure in films with thicknesses up to ~200 nm is the consequence of a strain-induced spinodal instability in the BiFeO3/LaAlO3 system. Additionally, a breakdown of this strain-stabilized metastable mixed-phase structure to non-epitaxial microcrystals of the parent rhombohedral structure of BiFeO3 is observed to occur at a critical thickness of ~300 nm. We further propose a mechanism for this abrupt breakdown that provides insight into the competing nature of the phases in this system. 
Anoop R. Damodaran, Sungki Lee, Karthik Jambunathan, Scott MacClaren,   and Lane W. Martin
cond-mat.mtrl-sci