Magnetic anisotropy and metal-insulator transition in SrRuO3 thin films at different growth temperatures

Abstract

Articles you may be interested inCrossover of angular dependent magnetoresistance with the metal-insulator transition in colossal magnetoresistive manganite films Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 132506 (2009); 10.1063/1.3240407 Magnetoresistive anisotropy and magnetoresistivity in strained La 0.65 Ca 0.35 Mn O 3 films near the metalinsulator transition Appl. Phys. Lett. 90, 232506 (2007); 10.1063/1.2746956 Suppression of the metal-insulator transition temperature in thin La 0.7 Sr 0.3 Mn O 3 films J. Appl. Phys. 96, 6387 (2004); 10.1063/1.1812599 Nd 0.8 Y 0.2 NiO 3 thin films with room-temperature metal-insulator transition deposited by pulsed laser ablation J. Appl. Phys. 93, 5136 (2003); 10.1063/1.1563815 Microstructure and magnetic properties of strained La 0.7 Sr 0.3 MnO 3 thin filmsMagnetic and transport properties of SrRuO 3 film grown on SrTiO 3 at different substrate temperatures have been investigated. Metallic behavior over the temperature range from 5 to 300 K is observed in the film grown at 750°C. With a decrease in the growth temperature, a metal-insulator transition occurs for films grown at 700 and 650°C, with transition temperatures of 15 K and 250 K, respectively, and a complete insulator behavior shows up in the film grown at 600°C. Correspondingly, out-of-plane ͑OOP͒ magnetic anisotropy is gradually weakened, leading to complete magnetic isotropy in the film grown at 600°C. The OOP lattice constant increases from 0.395 nm, for the film grown at 750°C, up to 0.403 nm for the film grown at 600°C. The correlation between the magnetic properties, transport properties, and the lattice constants indicates that the magnetic anisotropy and the metal-insulator transition ͑or insulator behavior͒ are caused mainly by strain in the SRO films, with correspondingly larger strain in films grown at lower temperatures.

Magnetism of the tensile-strain-induced tetragonal state of SrRuO3films

“…9,21, 22 We find T C values of 153.5 K for the T1-type samples, a value which is slightly smaller than the SRO bulk value of about 160 K. 23 The C-type and I-type samples have a T C of 149.1 and 150.0 K, respectively. We note that the conducted measurements of T C in remanence provides lower values than in-field measurements.…”

Defect-Induced Exchange Bias in a Single SrRuO3 Layer

“…26,31 Therefore, the decrease of T C in our SRO films can be attributed to the weakened ferromagnetic interaction due to the modulation of Ru-O-Ru bonds as c is expanded. 20,32 In the hysteresis curves, the magnetization shows jumps at different field, which is generally attributed to the Barkhausen jump. 33 These jumps are commonly caused by the irreversible motion of the domain walls between two regions of opposite magnetizing forces.…”

“…The larger structure distortion induced by the He ion irradiation leads to a change in the spin-spin coupling, which results in changes in the spinsplit electronic band structure and the exchange energy among spins. 32,[36][37] In addition to the variation of spin-spin coupling, the change of magnetic anisotropy as the component of T-like phase increases can also contribute to the decrease of magnetization. Having established that material structures and magnetic phases are susceptible to ion irradiation, we next study whether the EB effect can be introduced in a single SRO layer.…”

Structural, electrical, and magnetic properties of SrRuO3 thin films

“…[7][8][9] Previous studies have established that transport and magnetic properties of this compound are very sensitive to surface morphology, growth temperature, and substrate induced strain. [10][11][12][13][14] Besides the above mentioned factors, thickness of the film also influences its magnetic and electric properties. Toyota et al reported the enhanced resistivity in thin films due to the energy gap at Fermi energy level.…”

“…This is also supported by the XRD analysis where a tensile strain is noticed in the 12 nm film, which modifies Ru-O-Ru interatomic distances, resulting in resistivity enhancement. 11,26 The insulating behavior induced by disorder in the system follows the variable range hooping model: 27…”