Study of orthorhombic twins in epitaxial GdFeO 3 thin films

Highlights: • Growth of GdFeO3 film with laser ablation on SrTiO3 & LaAlO3 substrate is reported. • Films grow epitaxially on both the substrates with two in-plane 90^o domains. • Enhanced covalent mixing between O-2p and Fe-3d (t_2g) orbitals is observed. -- Abstract: Thin films of GdFeO₃ (GdFO) have been grown on two (00l) oriented single crystal substrates viz., LaAlO₃ and SrTiO₃ using pulsed laser ablation method. Phase purity of the prepared samples is confirmed from x-ray 2θ − ω measurements. From the x-ray phi-scans and reciprocal space mapping measurements, it is observed that GdFO films are epitaxial and grow in (00l) out-of-plane orientation. It is observed that the GdFO grows along the diagonal of the substrate cube with in-plane 90^o rotated orthorhombic twins for both the substrates. Magnetization data shows the signatures of Gd³⁺ ordering and magnetic field induced spin re-orientation similar to that of bulk GdFO for both the substrates. However, surface morphology is found to be different for both the substrates resulting in considerable changes of O K-edge near absorption spectra.