Fig. 2
a Selected STEM image showing the atomic resoluation lattice of the circular pillars, matrix and the interface; b strain component parallel to the surface εxx, c shear-strain map εxy, d perpendicular to the surface εyy, and e the rotation map ωxy gives the internal rigid-body rotation of the crystallographic lattice obtained by GPA from the HRTEM image of a. The scale bar is 5 nm and the colour scale indicates − 28° to + 28° strain and rotation. f The magnified view of part of image. The scale bar is 2 Å. g XRD θ–2θ scans of x = 0.3 nanocomposite thin film on LAO (001) substrate. Inset shows the overlap (002) peak and the area ratio fitting for cubic and tetragonal phase of ZrO2 nanopillars. Here, T represents tetragonal and C represents cubic. h The shift of the LSMO (002) peak downward on 2θ-scale for (LSMO)1−x:(ZrO2)x films with x = 0, 0.2 and 0.3, indicating the increase of the c-lattice parameter with increasing x. i Crystallographic model of interface matching