  We report a study on the thermodynamic stability and structure analysis of
the epitaxial BiFeO3 (BFO) thin films grown on YAlO3 (YAO) substrate. First we
observe a phase transition of MC-MA-T occurs in thin sample (<60 nm) with an
utter tetragonal-like phase (denoted as MII here) with a large c/a ratio
(~1.23). Specifically, MII phase transition process refers to the structural
evolution from a monoclinic MC structure at room temperature to a monoclinic MA
at higher temperature (150oC) and eventually to a presence of nearly tetragonal
structure above 275oC. This phase transition is further confirmed by the
piezoforce microscopy measurement, which shows the rotation of polarization
axis during the phase transition. A systematic study on structural evolution
with thickness to elucidate the impact of strain state is performed. We note
that the YAO substrate can serve as a felicitous base for growing T-like BFO
because this phase stably exists in very thick film. Thick BFO films grown on
YAO substrate exhibit a typical "morphotropic-phase-boundary"-like feature with
coexisting multiple phases (MII, MI, and R) and a periodic stripe-like
topography. A discrepancy of arrayed stripe morphology in different direction
on YAO substrate due to the anisotropic strain suggests a possibility to tune
the MPB-like region. Our study provides more insights to understand the strain
mediated phase co-existence in multiferroic BFO system.
