Suppression of ferromagnetism and metal-like conductivity in lightly Fe-doped SrRuO3

Abstract

The magnetic and electronic transport properties of the lightly doped SrRu1-xFexO3 (x ≤ 0.15) have been studied. All the samples show a paramagnetic-ferromagnetic phase transition and hysteresis effect. With the increase of Fe, the temperature of magnetic phase transition decreases but coercive field increases indicting the existence of antiferromagnetic interaction and magnetic-crystalline anisotropy. In low temperature, all the doping samples exhibit an insulating behavior while metal feature appears only at x ≤ 0.10 samples. The induced disorder suppresses the itinerant property of Ru 4d electron due to Fe random occupation. As a result, the ferromagnetism is weakened and metal-insulator transition is suppressed.