Structural, magnetic, and transport properties of high-quality epitaxial Sr2FeMoO6 thin films prepared by pulsed laser deposition

Abstract

We have succeeded in the preparation of a broad set of epitaxial Sr2FeMoO6 thin films by pulsed laser deposition. We have studied the effect of various deposition conditions, on both substrate-induced strain and antisite disorder (ASD), which translate into a variety of magnetic and transport properties of the films. We find that the saturation magnetization and the magnetoresistance are dominated by the degree of cationic order, and the strain effects are clearly evidenced in a lower TC. We characterize the ASD induced magnetoresistance, which arises from a moderate concentration of antisite defects and vanishes for massive ASD levels.