Magnetic orders of LaTiO3 under epitaxial strain: A first-principles study

Perovskite LaTiO3 bulk is a typical Mott-insulator with G-type antiferromagnetic order. In this work, the biaxial strain effects on the ground magnetic order of LaTiO3 films grown on various substrates have been studied. For the compressive strain, LaTiO3 films grown on LaAlO3, LaGaO3, and SrTiO3 substrates undergo a phase transition from the original G-type antiferromagnet to A-type antiferromagnet. The underlying physical mechanisms are the lattice distortions tunned by strain. While for the tensile strain, the BaTiO3 and LaScO3 substrates have been tested, which show a tendency to transit the LaTiO3 to the C-type antiferromagnet. Furthermore, our calculations find that the magnetic transitions under epitaxial strain do not change the insulating fact of LaTiO3. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.