Structural and electrical properties of room temperature pulsed laser deposited and post-annealed thin SrRuO3 films

Good quality strontium ruthenate (SrRuO3) thin continuous films (15 to 125 nm thick) have been synthesized on silicon (100) substrates by room temperature pulsed laser deposition under vacuum followed by a post-deposition annealing, a route unexplored and yet not reported for SrRuO3 film growth. The presence of an interfacial Sr2SiO4 layer has been identified for films annealed at high temperature, and the properties of this interface layer as well as the properties of the SrRuO3 film have been analyzed and characterized as a function of the annealing temperature. The room temperature resistivity of the SrRuO3 films deposited by laser ablation at room temperature and post-annealed is 2000 μΩ·cm. A critical thickness of 120 nm has been determined above which the influence of the interface layer on the resistivity becomes negligible.