Impact of epitaxial strain on the ferromagnetic transition temperature of SrRuO3 thin films

Epitaxially strained SrRuO3 films were grown on SrTiO3, DyScO3, and NdGaO3 oxide substrates using liquid-delivery metal–organic chemical vapour deposition. Temperature dependent resistivity measurements showed a shift in the Curie temperature (TC) of the ferromagnetic phase transition which is suggested to be caused by the incorporated elastic lattice strain in the films. TC increased with tensile and decreased with compressive strain, which was inferred from high resolution x-ray diffraction measurements of the in-plane and out-of-plane lattice parameters.