Thin films of the double perovskite Sr2FeMoO6 deposited by pulsed laser deposition

Sr2FeMoO6+x:film structure dependence upon substrate type and film thickness

“…However, the films on Sr 0.5 Ba 0.5 TiO 3 show no real grain structure, but some ridges due to the c-axis not always being out of the plane of the film. The grain size of the thinnest film on SrTiO 3 is comparable to those found by Borges et al [10].…”

“…For larger film thicknesses the c-axis lattice length of all films tends to a constant value, slightly above that of bulk SFMO. The difference between this constant value and the bulk value can be linked to some sub-optimal ordering, even in the thickest samples, which leads to an increase in the inter-plane spacing (as seen by Westerberg et al [7] and Shinde et al [8]), and a subsequent reduction of the spin-polarisation Borges et al [10].…”

Coherent Fe-rich nano-scale perovskite oxide phase in epitaxial Sr2FeMoO6 films grown on cubic and scandate substrates

“…When the strain energy becomes too large, it relaxes and favors the defect and, hence, deteriorates the transport properties. The resistivity values measured for our films are similar, but a bit higher compared to the reported values before, [28][29][30] which is understandable considering the presence of the NP items.…”

Effect of ex situ Post-annealing Treatments on Sr2FeMoO6 Thin Films

“…Highest onset T C values of the thin films prepared in optimized deposition atmosphere and temperature were about 375 K, even though T C of the target used in deposition of these films was around 400 K [11]. With other deposition atmospheres T C over room temperature have been achieved, but not proven values close to 400 K [12][13][14][15]. One of the possible reasons for changes in the magnetic properties between the polycrystalline and the thin-film samples growth by PLD can be the anti-site disorder (ASD) in which Fe and Mo transpose.…”

“…Advantages of PLD are that it does not require a very high vacuum during the deposition and a stoichiometric target can be used [9,10]. Commonly used atmosphere in the deposition of SFMO thin films is oxygen [10,[12][13][14], but vacuum, Ar, N 2 , or mixture of these with O 2 and H 2 are also used [13][14][15]. The choice of the deposition atmosphere has a crucial role in the deposition process as well as the deposition temperature.…”