Epitaxial growth and thermodynamic stability of SrIrO{sub 3}/SrTiO{sub 3} heterostructures

• Published in: Applied physics letters Vol. 109; no. 4
• Main Authors: Groenendijk, D. J., Manca, N., Mattoni, G., Kootstra, L., Caviglia, A. D., Gariglio, S., Huang, Y., Heumen, E. van
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 25-07-2016
• Subjects: AIR; CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; DEPOSITS; ELECTRON CORRELATION; ENERGY BEAM DEPOSITION; EPITAXY; L-S COUPLING; LASER RADIATION; LASERS; LAYERS; NANOSTRUCTURES; PULSED IRRADIATION; SPIN; STABILITY; STRONTIUM OXIDES; STRONTIUM TITANATES; THICKNESS; THIN FILMS; TOPOLOGY; TRANSITION ELEMENTS
• ISSN: 0003-6951; 1077-3118
• DOI: 10.1063/1.4960101

Obtaining high-quality thin films of 5d transition metal oxides is essential to explore the exotic semimetallic and topological phases predicted to arise from the combination of strong electron correlations and spin-orbit coupling. Here, we show that the transport properties of SrIrO{sub 3} thin films, grown by pulsed laser deposition, can be optimized by considering the effect of laser-induced modification of the SrIrO{sub 3} target surface. We further demonstrate that bare SrIrO{sub 3} thin films are subject to degradation in air and are highly sensitive to lithographic processing. A crystalline SrTiO{sub 3} cap layer deposited in-situ is effective in preserving the film quality, allowing us to measure metallic transport behavior in films with thicknesses down to 4 unit cells. In addition, the SrTiO{sub 3} encapsulation enables the fabrication of devices such as Hall bars without altering the film properties, allowing precise (magneto)transport measurements on micro- and nanoscale devices.