Fundamental Thickness Limit of Itinerant Ferromagnetic SrRuO3 Thin Films
Fundamental Thickness Limit of Itinerant Ferromagnetic SrRuO3 Thin Films
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DOI:
10.1103/physrevlett.103.057201
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发表时间:
2009-07-31
影响因子:
8.6
通讯作者:
Noh, T. W.
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
Chang, Young Jun;Kim, Choong H.;Noh, T. W.
We report on a fundamental thickness limit of the itinerant ferromagnetic oxide SrRuO3 that might arise from the orbital-selective quantum confinement effects. Experimentally, SrRuO3 films remain metallic even for a thickness of 2 unit cells (uc), but the Curie temperature T-C starts to decrease at 4 uc and becomes zero at 2 uc. Using the Stoner model, we attributed the T-C decrease to a decrease in the density of states (N-0). Namely, in the thin film geometry, the hybridized Ru d(yz,zx) orbitals are terminated by top and bottom interfaces, resulting in quantum confinement and reduction of N-0.