Strain-mediated electric-field control of the electronic transport properties of 5d iridate thin films of SrIrO3

• Published in: Journal of applied physics Vol. 133; no. 1
• Main Authors: Li, Shuang-Shuang, Zhang, Ying, Ying, Jing-Shi, Wang, Zao-Cai, Yan, Jian-Min, Gao, Guan-Yin, Ye, Mao, Zheng, Ren-Kui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Melville American Institute of Physics 07.01.2023
• Subjects: Compressive properties; Controllability; Electric fields; Electron transport; Epitaxial growth; Ferroelectric domains; Ferroelectricity; Lattice strain; Magnetoresistance; Magnetoresistivity; Phase transitions; Piezoelectricity; Single crystals; Substrates; Thin films; Transport properties
• ISSN: 0021-8979; 1089-7550
• DOI: 10.1063/5.0125516

SrIrO3 (SIO) thin films were epitaxially grown on (001)-oriented 0.7Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-0.3PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) single-crystal substrates. Upon applying electric fields to the piezoelectric PMN-PT along the thickness direction, the electronic transport properties of SIO films can be in situ tuned and modulated by non-180° ferroelectric domain rotation-induced strain, piezoelectric strain, and rhombohedral-to-tetragonal structural phase transition-induced strain in the PMN-PT layer, respectively. Moreover, the weak negative magnetoresistance (MR) of the 60-nm SIO films could be modified by applying an electric field to the PMN-PT layer. At T = 2 K, upon the application of E = 4 kV/cm to the PMN-PT, MR at H = 9 T is reduced by 14.2% as compared to that under zero electric field, indicating in-plane compressive strain-induced suppression of the influence of quantum corrections to the conductivity in the SIO film. These results demonstrate that the electric-field controllable lattice strain is a simple approach to get insight into the strain-property relationships of 5d iridate thin films.