Epitaxial SrRuO3 thin films on (001) SrTiO3

Abstract

Highly conductive metallic oxide thin films of ${\mathrm{SrRuO}}_{\mathrm{3}}$ with single crystalline quality have been grown on (001) ${\mathrm{SrTiO}}_3$ by using pulsed laser deposition. The films have a $\text{[00l}$ ] orientation with an in-plane relationship of ${\text{[110]}}_{{\mathrm{SrRuO}}_{\mathrm{3}}}{\text{\hspace{0.17em}//\hspace{0.17em}[100]}}_{{\mathrm{SrTiO}}_{\mathrm{3}}}.$ They have excellent metallic behavior with room temperature resistivity of $\sim$ 310 $\mathrm{\mu \Omega }$ cm and a residual resistance ratio of about 7 at 4.2 K, the largest reported to date. A clear ferromagnetic transition at $\sim$ 147 K was detected by resistivity and magnetic measurements. However, the transition becomes blurred as the density-of-point defects increases in the films following a 400 keV proton irradiation with an accumulative dose up to ${\text{∼6.0×10}}^{16}\hspace{0.5em}{\mathrm{ions/cm}}^2.$