Self-organized, periodic nanostructures in epitaxially grown SrRuO3 thin-film

Abstract

The three-dimensional (3D) nanosized compactness of devices is in high demand for the spintronic-device applicability. However, very few self-organized, periodic magnetic 3D nanostructures of transition metal oxides are known. Here, we report the direct microscopic evidence of a self-assembled, square-shaped, periodic array of coherent orthogonal nanoblock-type structure in an epitaxial SrRuO3 (SRO) thin film (∼90 nm thickness) grown on (001) LaAlO3 (LAO) using pulsed-laser deposition technique. The evolution of different growth facets of SRO over the LAO single crystalline substrate with different thickness are observed. The combined effect of substrate-induced strain and misfit is utilized to grow such self-assembled, ordered nanostructure. The spontaneous formation of such ordered ferromagnetic nano-devices can fill the gap of a miniaturized spintronic device for magnetic memory-based applications.