Metalorganic chemical vapor deposition of epitaxial perovskite SrIrO3 films on (100)SrTiO3 substrates

(001)(c)-oriented 60-70-nm-thick SrIrO3 films with a high-pressure-stable perovskite phase were epitaxially grown on (100)SrTiO3 substrates by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition, and the crystal structure and the resistivity of the films were investigated. X-ray diffraction techniques including general theta-2 theta scan, the rocking curve and high-resolution reciprocal space mapping, were used to determine crystal quality, lattice constant, and crystal structure of the SrIrO3 films. It was demonstrated that the film crystal structure was tetragonal distorted by strong mechanical constraints due to the in-plane matching with the lattice parameters of SrTiO3 substrates, and maintained almost the same unit cell volume as the reported one for the perovskite cubic SrIrO3 phase. The resistivity of the film at room temperature was 740 mu ohm cm, and it decreased with decreasing temperature down to 100K. Finally, an atomically flat surface was obtained on atomically stepped (100)SrTiO3 substrates.