Abstract
Thin films of Sr2FeMoO6 (SFMO) were grown by pulsed laser deposition in non-optimized argon ambient pressures. The films were found to contain a high number of precipitates of foreign phases. The nature and microstructure of these phases were investigated in detail by high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and X-ray diffractometry (XRD). We found out that the dominant foreign phase embedded in the SFMO film matrix was SrMoO4 (SMO). Through STEM and XRD analysis, we determined that the SMO phase grows epitaxially with respect to the surrounding SFMO matrix and has a fairly good crystallinity. Although the SFMO films include many foreign precipitates, they still exhibit good conducting properties and moderate magnetization values. Tuning the growth of the SMO phase on top of SFMO films to obtain a natural tunnel barrier might pave the way for future applications of SFMO in spintronic devices.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Kobayashi KI, Kimura T, Sawada H, Terakura K, Tokura Y (1998) Room-temperature magnetoresistance in an oxide material with an ordered double-perovskite structure. Nature 395:677–680
Bibes M, Bouzehouane K, Barthelemy A, Besse M, Fusil S, Bowen M, Seneor P, Carrey J, Cros V, Vaures A, Contour JP, Fert A (2003) Tunnel magnetoresistance in nanojunctions based on Sr2FeMoO6. Appl Phys Lett 83:2629–2631
Tomioka Y, Okuda T, Okimoto Y, Kumai R, Kobayashi KI, Tokura Y (2000) Magnetic and electronic properties of a single crystal of ordered double perovskite Sr2FeMoO6. Phys Rev B 61:422–427
Balcells L, Navarro J, Bibes M, Roig A, Martinez B, Fontcuberta J (2001) Cationic ordering control of magnetization in Sr2FeMoO6 double perovskite. Appl Phys Lett 78:781–783
Niebieskikwiat D, Caneiro A, Sanchez RD, Fontcuberta J (2001) Oxygen-induced grain boundary effects on magnetotransport properties of Sr2FeMoO6+δ. Phys Rev B 64:R180406
Kim TH, Uehara M, Cheong SW, Lee S (1999) Large room-temperature intergrain magnetoresistance in double perovskite SrFe1-x(Mo or Re)xO3. Appl Phys Lett 74:1737–1739
Asano H, Ogale SB, Garrison J, Orozco A, Li YH, Li E, Smolyaninova V, Galley C, Downes M, Rajeswari M, Ramesh R, Venkatesan T (1999) Pulsed-laser-deposited epitaxial Sr2FeMoO6-y thin films: positive and negative magnetoresistance regimes. Appl Phys Lett 74:3696–3698
Manako T, Izumi M, Konishi Y, Kobayashi KI, Kawasaki M, Tokura Y (1999) Epitaxial thin films of ordered double perovskite Sr2FeMoO6. Appl Phys Lett 74:2215–2217
Yin HQ, Zhou JS, Zhou JP, Dass R, McDevitt JT, Goodenough JB (1999) Intra- versus intergranular low- field magnetoresistance of Sr2FeMoO6 thin films. Appl Phys Lett 75:2812–2814
Shinde SR, Ogale SB, Greene RL, Venkatesan T, Tsoi K, Cheong SW, Millis AJ (2003) Thin films of double perovskite Sr2FeMoO6: growth, optimization, and study of the physical and magnetotransport properties of films grown on single-crystalline and polycrystalline SrTiO3 substrates. J Appl Phys 93:1605–1612
Westerburg W, Reisinger D, Jakob G (2000) Epitaxy and magnetotransport of Sr2FeMoO6 thin films. Phys Rev B 62:R767–R770
Venimadhav A, Sher F, Attfield JP, Blamire MG (2004) Oxygen assisted deposition of Sr2FeMoO6 thin films on SrTiO3 (100). J Magn Magn Mater 269:101–105
Besse M, Pailloux F, Barthélémy A, Bouzehouane K, Fert A, Olivier J, Durand O, Wyczisk F, Bisaro R, Contour JP (2002) Characterization methods of epitaxial Sr2FeMoO6 thin films. J Cryst Growth 241:448–454
Santiso J, Figueras A, Fraxedas J (2002) Thin films of Sr2FeMoO6 grown by pulsed laser deposition: preparation and characterization. Surf Interface Anal 33:676–680
Kim DY, Kim JS, Park BH, Lee JK, Kim JH, Lee JH, Chang J, Kim HJ, Kim I, Park YD (2004) SrFeO3 nanoparticles-dispersed SrMoO4 insulating thin films deposited from Sr2FeMoO6 target in oxygen atmosphere. Appl Phys Lett 84:5037–5039
Sanchez D, Garcia-Hernandez M, Auth N, Jakob G (2004) Structural, magnetic, and transport properties of high-quality epitaxial Sr2FeMoO6 thin films prepared by pulsed laser deposition. J Appl Phys 96:2736–2742
Ogale AS, Ogale SB, Ramesh R, Venkatesan T (1999) Octahedral cation site disorder effects on magnetization in double-perovskite Sr2FeMoO6: Monte Carlo simulation study. Appl Phys Lett 75:537–539
Borges RP, Lhostis S, Bari MA, Versluijs JJ, Lunney JG, Coey JMD, Besse M, Contour JP (2003) Thin films of the double perovskite Sr2FeMoO6 deposited by pulsed laser deposition. Thin Solid Films 429:5–12
Meneghini C, Ray S, Liscio F, Bardelli F, Mobilio S, Sarma DD (2009) Nature of “disorder” in the ordered double perovskite Sr2FeMoO6. Phys Rev Lett 103:046403
Cernea M, Vasiliu F, Plapcianu C, Bartha C, Mercioniu I, Pasuk I, Lowndes R, Trusca R, Aldica GV, Pintilie L (2013) Preparation by sol-gel and solid state reaction methods and properties investigation of double perovskite Sr2FeMoO6. J Eur Ceram Soc 33:2483–2490
Koster G, Kropman BL, Rijnders G, Blank D, Rogalla H (1998) Quasi-ideal strontium titanate crystal surfaces through formation of strontium hydroxide. Appl Phys Lett 73:2920–2922
Tang X, Zhu X, Dai J, Yang J, Hu L, Chen L, Zhu X, Li X, Jiang H, Zhang R, Sun Y (2014) c-Axis oriented SrMoO4 thin films by chemical solution deposition: self-assembled orientation, grain growth and photoluminescence properties. Acta Mater 65:287–294
Gurmen E, Daniels E, King JS (1971) Crystal structure refinement of SrMoO4, SrWO4, CaMoO4, and BaWO4 by neutron diffraction. J Chem Phys 55:1093–1097
Di Trolio A, Larciprete R, Testa AM, Fiorani D, Imperatori P, Turchini S, Zema N (2006) Double perovskite Sr2FeMoO6 films: growth, structure and magnetic behavior. J Appl Phys 100:013907
Huang YH, Karppinen M, Yamauchi H, Goodenough JB (2006) Systematic studies on effects of cationic ordering on structural and magnetic properties in Sr2FeMoO6. Phys Rev B 73:104408
Hong X, Yau JB, Hoffman JD, Ahn CH, Bason Y, Klein L (2006) Effect of electric field doping on the anisotropic magnetoresistance in doped manganites. Phys Rev B 74:174406
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the EU-FP7 project IFOX (Grant No. NMP3-LA-2010-246102).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Deniz, H., Preziosi, D., Alexe, M. et al. Microstructure and properties of epitaxial Sr2FeMoO6 films containing SrMoO4 precipitates. J Mater Sci 50, 3131–3138 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-015-8874-7
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-015-8874-7