Anomalous Hall Effect in Ultrathin Crystalline Strontium Ruthenate Membranes

SrRuO3 (SRO) is a complex oxide that hosts a plethora of exotic magneto-transport properties due to its strong spin-orbit coupling and itinerant ferromagnetism. In particular it is an excellent candidate to investigate the intrinsic Berry-phase driven Anomalous Hall Effect. A recent breakthrough(1) has allowed complex oxides, epitaxially grown via pulsed laser deposition, to be exfoliated and released via a sacrificial layer. These freestanding complex oxide membranes are an exciting new platform for investigating and tuning the interplay between structural and electronic properties(2).  

We systematically investigate the temperature dependence of the anomalous Hall effect within SRO membranes of varying thicknesses. In addition, extensive characterization is performed via X-ray diffraction. The exfoliation process is shown to release the epitaxial strain while maintaining long-range crystallinity, thus producing highly ordered, strain-free, conducting ferromagnetic membranes. These electronic and magnetic properties were found to be comparable to their epitaxial counterparts, paving the way towards prospective atomically-thin itinerant ferromagnetic membranes.

[1] D. Lu et al., Nat. Mater., 15, 1255 (2016).

[2] D. Davidovikj et al. Commun. Phys. 3, 163 (2020).