Controlling orbital polarization through epitaxial strain in Mott insulating LaVO3 Thin Films: An XLD and XMLD investigation across the orbital ordering and spin ordering temperature

Targeted manipulation of the quantum states utilizing the epitaxial stabilization of certain orbital occupations offer new opportunities to create relevant phases significant for technological applications. Here we propose a comprehensive spectroscopic understanding of orbital occupation and its controllable modulation using epitaxial strain on LaVO3 (LVO) film through X-ray linear dichroism (XLD) and X-ray magnetic linear dichroism (XMLD) measurements. These investigations will be carried out on LVO thin films grown under different epitaxial strain conditions. Such substrate induced lattice misfit strain can cause a distortion in local symmetry. The electron population in orbitals and its symmetry primarily determines the charge transfer and exchange interaction between the lattice sites that also alters by such distortion. Therefore, knowledge of orbital polarization becomes essential to grasp the specific orbitals influenced by strain driven symmetry distortion that providing insights into the electronic and exotic magnetic states of the heterostructure involving LVO.