Growth of Epitaxial a-Axis and c-Axis Oriented Sr2RuO4 Films

Epitaxial films of Sr2RuO4 have been grown in situ by pulsed laser deposition on (100) LaAlO3 and (100) LaSrGaO4 substrates. X-ray diffraction results show that the films are single domain and grow c-axis oriented on (100) LaAlO3 and a-axis oriented on (100) LaSrGaO4 substrates. X-ray ø-scans indicate epitaxial alignment of the film and substrate in-plane axes in both cases. Resistivity versus temperature measurements reveal that the as-grown c-axis oriented films are semiconducting and the a-axis oriented films are metallic. The metallic films grown so far were found to be non-superconducting down to 50 mK.