Growth of superconducting Sr2RuO4 thin films

Abstract

Sr 2 RuO 4 is a superconductor with a low transition temperature (Tc∼1 K), but has a unique character of p-wave symmetry of the order parameter, demanding epitaxial thin films for Josephson junction studies. We have grown c-axis oriented epitaxial films by a pulsed laser deposition technique on (001) surfaces of (LaAlO3)0.3(SrAl0.5Ta0.5O3)0.7 substrates. Careful tuning of growth conditions yielded in a layer-by-layer growth of high crystallinity films. The films show a residual resistivity ratio (ρ300 K/ρ2 K) as large as 82 and a superconducting transition with a zero resistivity at 0.6 K.