Temperature-dependent Raman study of PrFeO3 thin film

Low-temperature Raman study of (001)-oriented PrFeO3 thin film of around 200 nm thickness deposited on a LaAlO3 (001) substrate by using the pulsed-laser deposition technique is presented. X-ray diffraction analysis of this film shows an orthorhombic structure with Pbnm space group. The observed substrate-induced strain is found to be small. In the room temperature Raman spectra, different Raman modes were observed that were classified according to the orthorhombic structure. All the observed modes show a decrease in wavenumber with rise in temperature, except the B-1g mode (624 cm(-1)) which shows some anomalous behavior. We tried to correlate the variations in linewidth and position with temperature for the observed modes with the octahedral disorder of FeO6. Many possibilities are presented to explain the observed results. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.