Role of the interface in controlling the epitaxial relationship between orthorhombic LaInO3 and cubic BaSnO3

Epitaxial perovskite oxide interfaces with different symmetry of the epitaxial layers have attracted considerable attention due to the emergence of novel behaviors and phenomena. In this paper, we show by aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy (TEM) that orthorhombic LaInO3 films grow in form of three different types of domains on the cubic BaSnO3 pseudosubstrate. Quantitative evaluation of our TEM data shows that c(pc)-oriented and a(pc)/b(pc)-oriented domains are present with similar probability. While continuum elasticity theory suggests that c(pc)-oriented domains should exhibit a significantly higher strain energy density than a(pc)/b(pc)-oriented domains, density-functional calculations confirm that c(pc)- and a(pc)-oriented domains on BaSnO3 have similar energies.