Growth and properties of half-metallic double perovskite thin films

摘要

Ferromagnetic oxides with ordered double-perovskites Sr_2FeMoO_6 and Sr_2CrReO_6 are known to be in a half-metallic ground state with high Curie temperatures T_c, and hence one of the promising materials for spin electronics. This paper reports epitaxial growth and micro-structural, magnetic, and electrical characterization of thin films of these oxides. It is shown that a coherent growth without strain relaxation, which is accomplished by the use of substrate or buffer layers with a small (0.1%) lattice match, is essential to obtain high quality films with both atomically flat surface and high magnetization values expected for their half-metallicity.