Switching behavior and its strain dependence in epitaxial CrO{sub}2 thin films

摘要

Chromium dioxide thin films grown epitaxially on TiO{sub}2 substrates exhibited a strong in-plane uniaxial anisotropy. Field dependence of high frequency (10{sup}6 Hz) transverse susceptibility (XT) measurements were used to probe the magnetic anisotropy and switching in CrO{sub}2 films for varying temperature (10 K to 300 K) and different orientations of the applied field with respect to the magnetic easy axis. Singular peaks in X{sub}T were observed and are associated with the anisotropy and switching fields. The X{sub}T data at low temperatures reveal an unusual variation of the singular peaks. This can be described by including magnetoelastic contributions resulting from the in-plane tensile strain in the film due to lattice mismatch with the substrate.