Abstract
Complex oxide thin films and heterostructures exhibit a variety of electronic phases, often controlled by the mechanical coupling between film and substrate. Recently it has become possible to isolate epitaxially grown single-crystalline layers of these materials, enabling the study of their properties in the absence of interface effects. In this work, we use this technique to create nanomechanical resonators made out of SrTiO3 and SrRuO3. Using laser interferometry, we successfully actuate and measure the motion of the nanodrum resonators. By measuring the temperature-dependent mechanical response of the SrTiO3 resonators, we observe signatures of a structural phase transition, which affects both the strain and mechanical dissipation in the resonators. Here, we demonstrate the feasibility of integrating ultrathin complex oxide membranes for realizing nanoelectromechanical systems on arbitrary substrates and present a novel method of detecting structural phase transitions in these exotic materials.
Highlights
Complex oxide thin films and heterostructures exhibit a variety of electronic phases, often controlled by the mechanical coupling between film and substrate
To isolate the epitaxial SrTiO3 (STO) and SrRuO3 (SRO) thin films from the substrate, a water-soluble epitaxial Sr3Al2O6 (SAO) layer is first deposited by pulsed laser deposition on a TiO2-terminated STO(001) substrate
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) topographic maps are shown in Fig. 1b, c, showing that the STO surface has a step-and-terrace structure, corroborating the growth mode
Summary
Complex oxide thin films and heterostructures exhibit a variety of electronic phases, often controlled by the mechanical coupling between film and substrate. The strong dependence of their electronic properties on mechanical strain has attracted a lot of attention towards their implementation in nanoelectromechanical sensors and actuators[8], but exploiting this trait to the fullest has been limited by the requirement of a substrate for the epitaxial growth This constrains the possibilities for their mechanical manipulation and integration with electronics and it could not be circumvented until recently, when single-crystal films of complex oxides were successfully released and transferred[9,10]. We utilize the fabrication techniques for van der Waals materials to realize ultrathin nanomechanical resonators made out of epitaxially grown single-crystal complex oxide films We show that these devices can be used to detect signatures of temperature-induced phase transitions of the material, which manifest themselves through changes of strain and, even more prominently, of mechanical dissipation in the resonators
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