Epitaxial growth and structure of LaVO3 and PrVO3 thin films

We report on the epitaxial growth of ${\mathrm{PrVO}}_{3}$ and ${\mathrm{LaVO}}_{3}$ by molecular beam epitaxy on (001)-oriented ${\mathrm{SrTiO}}_{3}$ substrates. We show that a high control of the deposition is achieved and leads to a highly reproducible layer-by-layer growth mode. We evidence also the effect of epitaxial strain on the magnetic properties of the epitaxial films. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy and scanning transmission electron microscopy observations reveal that an antipolar motion of the rare earth atoms exists in both ${\mathrm{LaVO}}_{3}$ and ${\mathrm{PrVO}}_{3}$ thin films. The investigation of the structural distortions and atomic displacements in the vanadate thin films may be generalized to other orthorhombic perovskite oxides and contributes to the search of ferroelectricity by design in symmetry-breaking magnetic oxide superlattices.