Influence of the Growth Ambience on the Localized Phase Separation and Electrical Conductivity in SrRuO3 Oxide Films

Abstract

Perovskite SrRuO3 (SRO) epitaxial thin films grown on SrTiO3 (STO) (001) have been synthesized using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) under a series of oxygen pressures. High quality and conductive SRO thin films on STO have been achieved at 10−1 Torr oxygen pressure with the epitaxial relation of (110)<001>SrRuO3//(001)<010>SrTiO3. The lattice parameters of the thin films exhibit huge expansion by reducing the ambience (~10−7 Torr) during deposition, and the resistance increases by about two orders higher as compared with the low oxide pressure ones. The rise of resistivity can be ascribed to not only the deficiency of Ru elements but also the phase transformation inside SRO thin films. The correlation of growth ambience on the structural transition and corresponding resistivity of epitaxial oxide thin films have been explicitly investigated.