Abstract
We present the fabrication and exploration of arrays of nanodots of SrRuO3 with dot sizes between 500 and 15 nm. Down to the smallest dot size explored, the samples were found to be magnetic with a maximum Curie temperature TC achieved by dots of 30 nm diameter. This peak in TC is associated with a dot-size-induced relief of the epitaxial strain, as evidenced by scanning transmission electron microscopy.
Highlights
We present the fabrication and exploration of arrays of nanodots of SrRuO3 with dot sizes between 500 and 15 nm
Even slight variations of the stoichiometry or lattice parameters may lead to a significant change of magnetic properties.[18−20] SrRuO3 is a model system to study the relevance of deadlayer creation and how materials behave upon confinement within low-dimensional objects
A Z-contrast Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) image of a singledot cross section from a different sample is shown in Figure 2(a), which depicts a clear contrast between the SrRuO3 and the substrate material with a sharp interface
Summary
JBX6300) and CSAR (Allresist, AR-P 6200) as resist material. A 20 nm layer of amorphous Al2O3 was deposited, which was used as a hard mask for dry etching with Ar ions at an energy of 600 eV and a pressure of 1.4 × 10−4 mbar. We used rectangular arrays of dots, where the dot periodicity equaled two dot diameters. Arrays covered the entire substrate area, excluding edge regions. For 20 nm dots, ≈109 dots were fabricated on each substrate. Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) specimens in cross-sectional orientation were prepared by focused ion beam (Zeiss CrossBeam XB 1540) cutting and nanomilled at liquid nitrogen temperature (Fischione NanoMill Model 1040). STEM investigations were carried out using a spherical aberration-corrected microscope (JEOL JEM-ARM 200F) with a DCOR probe corrector (CEOS GmbH) at 200 kV
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