Defect Chemistry and Size Effects in SrRuO<sub>3</sub>
ORAL
Abstract
The metal-insulator transition in strontium ruthenate (SrRuO3) is an unsolved issue of great relevance.
SrRuO3, one of the oxides with the highest conductivity, is widely used in applications such as electrodes of capacitors. In addition, it is ferromagnetic, has low intrinsic disorder and its epitaxial growth is well understood. It is thus a good candidate for spintronics where a two-dimensional spin-polarized conducting system is a long-standing goal. Investigations in ultrathin SrRuO3, however, have revealed an insulating state for film thicknesses below three unit cells1. These findings are however not unanimous, and single-layer conductive SRO might be experimentally possible2.
We investigate by means of DFT+U structural phenomena which could occur in the crystal deposition of SrRuO3 and lead to an insulating state. In particular, we focus on single point defects and defect dipoles on the electronic structure of an SrRuO3 thin film. Moreover, we investigate changes in octahedral distortions and lattice tetragonality as a function of film thickness.
1 J. Xia, W. Siemons et al., Phys. Rev. B 79, 140407(R) (2009)
2 C.R. Hughes, T. Harada et al. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1609.08901
SrRuO3, one of the oxides with the highest conductivity, is widely used in applications such as electrodes of capacitors. In addition, it is ferromagnetic, has low intrinsic disorder and its epitaxial growth is well understood. It is thus a good candidate for spintronics where a two-dimensional spin-polarized conducting system is a long-standing goal. Investigations in ultrathin SrRuO3, however, have revealed an insulating state for film thicknesses below three unit cells1. These findings are however not unanimous, and single-layer conductive SRO might be experimentally possible2.
We investigate by means of DFT+U structural phenomena which could occur in the crystal deposition of SrRuO3 and lead to an insulating state. In particular, we focus on single point defects and defect dipoles on the electronic structure of an SrRuO3 thin film. Moreover, we investigate changes in octahedral distortions and lattice tetragonality as a function of film thickness.
1 J. Xia, W. Siemons et al., Phys. Rev. B 79, 140407(R) (2009)
2 C.R. Hughes, T. Harada et al. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1609.08901
*European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 744027
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Presenters
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Chiara Gattinoni
- Materials Theory, ETH