Preparation of SrIrO3 thin films by using metal-organic aerosol deposition technique

The interplay between spin-orbit coupling and electronic correlations could lead to interesting novel states in iridium oxide materials. We focus on the perovskite phase of SrIrO3 because Moon et al. [1] showed by using optical spectroscopy and first-principles calculations that the last member of the Ruddlesden-Popper series Srn+1IrnO3n+1 (n = ∞) is close to the Mott transition. By using metal-organic aerosol deposition technique we have grown SrIrO3 thin films on (111)-oriented SrTiO3 substrates. The cubic symmetry of the SrTiO3 substrate ensured that the SrIrO3 thin film grew in the monoclinic perovskite phase. The X-ray diffraction results suggest that SrIrO3 thin films in perovskite structure were obtained and these show out of plane epitaxy with monoclinic (002)m-orientation. The temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity of these SrIrO3 thin films were investigated and metallic behavior was observed down to 50 K.