Polarization-dependent X-ray absorption spectroscopy of hexagonal and orthorhombic TbMnO₃ thin films

Pure phase TbMnO₃ manganite thin films with hexagonal (h-TMO) and orthorhombic (o- TMO) crystal structures were prepared by pulsed laser deposition. The distinctive orientation alignments between film and substrate obtained here have allowed us to perform the X-ray absorption near edge spectroscopy (XANES) measurements with the electric field applied along the three major crystallographic directions. The XANES results, as expected, display significantly different spectral features for the h-TMO and o-TMO films. In addition, the XANES spectra also exhibit strong polarization dependence at O K and Mn L edges for both samples.