It was recalled that the elastic dipole tensor for several types of point defects in SrTiO3 showed that it was nearly traceless for oxygen vacancies. Thus, mobile oxygen vacancies were predicted to screen elastic strain fields. Here, detailed diffuse X-ray scattering measurements of bulk SrTiO3 crystals prepared with controlled oxygen vacancy distributions were decribed. The traceless nature of the elastic dipole tensor of an oxygen vacancy was verified and correlations between oxygen vacancies and elastic strain screening by oxygen vacancies were demonstrated.

Strain Screening by Mobile Oxygen Vacancies in SrTiO3. Y.Kim, A.S.Disa, T.E.Babakol, J.D.Brock: Applied Physics Letters, 2010, 96[25], 251901