Phase Transition Dynamics in a Complex Oxide Heterostructure

Qingteng Zhang, Guoxiang Hu, Vitalii Starchenko, Gang Wan, Eric M. Dufresne, Yongqi Dong, Huajun Liu, Hua Zhou, Hyoungjeen Jeen, Kayahan Saritas, Jaron T. Krogel, Fernando A. Reboredo, Ho Nyung Lee, Alec R. Sandy, Irene Calvo Almazan, Panchapakesan Ganesh, Dillon D. Fong

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

Understanding the behavior of defects in the complex oxides is key to controlling myriad ionic and electronic properties in these multifunctional materials. The observation of defect dynamics, however, requires a unique probe - one sensitive to the configuration of defects as well as its time evolution. Here, we present measurements of oxygen vacancy ordering in epitaxial thin films of SrCoOx and the brownmillerite-perovskite phase transition employing x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy. These and associated synchrotron measurements and theory calculations reveal the close interaction between the kinetics and the dynamics of the phase transition, showing how spatial and temporal fluctuations of heterointerface evolve during the transformation process. The energetics of the transition are correlated with the behavior of oxygen vacancies, and the dimensionality of the transformation is shown to depend strongly on whether the phase is undergoing oxidation or reduction. The experimental and theoretical methods described here are broadly applicable to in situ measurements of dynamic phase behavior and demonstrate how coherence may be employed for novel studies of the complex oxides as enabled by the arrival of fourth-generation hard x-ray coherent light sources.

Original languageEnglish
Article number235701
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume129
Issue number23
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2 2022

Funding

Work on the sample and QMC calculations was supported by U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division. V. S. was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division. G. H., P. G., and J. T. K. were supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division, as part of the Computational Materials Sciences Program at the Center for Predictive Simulation of Functional Materials. The x-ray measurements were performed at beam line 8-ID-E of the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. A portion of research (DFT) was conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility. The QMC calculations used resources of the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725. The DFT calculations used resources of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, operated under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.

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