Enhanced Metallic Properties of SrRuO₃ Thin Films via Kinetically Controlled Pulsed Laser Epitaxy

Authors

Justin K. Thompson, University of KentuckyFollow
J. Nichols, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
S. Lee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
S. Ryee, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea
John H. Gruenewald, University of KentuckyFollow
John G. Connell, University of KentuckyFollow
Maryam Souri, University of KentuckyFollow
J. M. Johnson, The Ohio State University
J. Hwang, The Ohio State University
M. J. Han, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea
H. N. Lee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
D. -W. Kim, Ewha Womans University, South Korea
Sung S. Ambrose Seo, University of KentuckyFollow

Abstract

Metal electrodes are a universal element of all electronic devices. Conducting SrRuO₃ (SRO) epitaxial thin films have been extensively used as electrodes in complex-oxide heterostructures due to good lattice mismatches with perovskite substrates. However, when compared to SRO single crystals, SRO thin films have shown reduced conductivity and Curie temperatures (T_C), which can lead to higher Joule heating and energy loss in the devices. Here, we report that high-quality SRO thin films can be synthesized by controlling the plume dynamics and growth rate of pulsed laser epitaxy (PLE) with real-time optical spectroscopic monitoring. The SRO thin films grown under the kinetically controlled conditions, down to ca. 16 nm in thickness, exhibit both enhanced conductivity and T_C as compared to bulk values, due to their improved stoichiometry and a strain-mediated increase of the bandwidth of Ru 4d electrons. This result provides a direction for enhancing the physical properties of PLE-grown thin films and paves a way to improved device applications.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-17-2016

Notes/Citation Information

Published in Applied Physics Letters, v. 109, issue 16, 161902, p. 1-5.

This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and AIP Publishing.

The following article appeared in Applied Physics Letters 109, 161902 (2016), and may be found at https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4964882.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4964882

Funding Information

We acknowledge the support of the National Science Foundation Grant No. DMR-1454200 for the sample syntheses and characterizations. S.R. and M.J.H. were supported by the Basic Science Research Program through NRF (2014R1A1A2057202), and the computing resource is supported by KISTI (KSC-2014-C2-046). The XRD measurements performed at ORNL were supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Science and Engineering Division.

Related Content

See supplementary material for the results of atomic force microscopy, first-principles calculations, XRD RSM, and additional transport measurements.

Repository Citation

Thompson, Justin K.; Nichols, J.; Lee, S.; Ryee, S.; Gruenewald, John H.; Connell, John G.; Souri, Maryam; Johnson, J. M.; Hwang, J.; Han, M. J.; Lee, H. N.; Kim, D. -W.; and Seo, Sung S. Ambrose, "Enhanced Metallic Properties of SrRuO₃ Thin Films via Kinetically Controlled Pulsed Laser Epitaxy" (2016). Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications. 478.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/physastron_facpub/478