Strain effect in SrRuO3 thin films and heterostructures

In the present work we report structural and transport properties of epitaxial SrRuO3 films grown by Laser Molecular Beam Epitaxy (Laser MBE) equipped with in-situ Reflection High Energy Electron Diffraction (RHEED) analysis at very low oxygen pressure (less than 10-4 mbar). Several works have given first evidence of a strong correlation between transport and magnetic properties and structural properties of SrRuO3 (such as the influence of the strain, substrate-film interface, etc.). We worked on the determination of the conductive and magnetic properties of SrRuO3 films as a function of the strain. Different strains were induced varying the SrRuO3 films thickness from ultrathin (few unit cells) to thick (thousands of Angstrom) structures. Superlattices based on SrRuO3 and SrTiO3 films were also grown. In such a structure, the largest value of strain was achieved and the transport properties confirm our simple SrRuO3 conducting model.