We report the direct measurement of elastic straineffect on the electrical and magnetic properties of single domainepitaxial SrRuO_3 thin films, using a lift-off technique. The as-grown films on vicinal (001) SrTiO_3 substrates are subjected toelastic biaxial compressive strain within the plane and tensilestrain normal to the plane. In contrast, the lift-off films preparedby chemical etching of SrTiO_3 substrates, are completely strainfree with bulk like lattice. Our measurements indicate that theelastic strain can significantly affect the electrical and magneticproperties of epitaxial ferromagnetic SrRuO_3 thin films. Forthe strained films, the Curie temperature (T_c) was suppressedto 150K and the saturation magnetic moment (M_s) wasdecreased to 1.15 #mu#/Ru atom as compared to a T_c of 160Kand M_s of l.45#mu#/Ru atom for the strain free films. Theseproperty changes are attributed to the structural distortion due tothe elastic strain in the as-grown epitaxial thin films. Our resultsprovide direct evidence of the crucial role of lattice strain indetermining the properties of the perovskite epitaxial thin films.
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