Abstract
The electronic properties of strontium ruthenate SrRuO3 perovskite oxide thin films are modified by epitaxial strain, as determined by growing on different substrates by pulsed laser deposition. Temperature dependence of the transport properties indicates that tensile strain deformation of the SrRuO3 unit cell reduces the metallicity of the material as well as its metal-insulator-transition (MIT) temperature. On the contrary, the shrinkage of the Ru–O–Ru buckling angle due to compressive strain is counterweighted by the increased overlap of the conduction Ru-4d orbitals with the O-2p ones due to the smaller interatomic distances resulting into an increased MIT temperature, i.e., a more conducting material. In particular, in the more metallic samples, the core level X-ray photoemission spectroscopy lineshapes show the occurrence of an extra-peak at the lower binding energies of the main Ru-3d peak that is attributed to screening, as observed in volume sensitive photoemission of the unstrained material.
Highlights
Electron hybridization in solids in competition with Coulomb interactions plays a fundamental role in the quantum properties of these transition metal oxide materials [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
Surface morphology of the SRO samples was investigated by a Supra 40 field-emission gun (FEG) scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with a Gemini column and an
The measurements were recorded on the samples that were transferred in situ directly after growth under UHV conditions to the APE
Summary
Electron hybridization in solids in competition with Coulomb interactions plays a fundamental role in the quantum properties of these transition metal oxide materials [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. Because of the structural and chemical similarities of all oxide perovskites, the growth of very high-quality epitaxial SRO-based heterostructures is possible, allowing to explore new perspectives in the field of electronic, magnetic and optical devices [10,11,12]. Only compressively strained SRO thin films display bulk-like electronic properties in proximity of the surface (i.e., within 1 nm) as opposite to SRO films under tensile strain. This evidence that the surface/interface electronic charge distribution can be effectively controlled via atomic-precision growth techniques, is of importance for possible applications in the field of integrated spintronics
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