Strontium ruthenate (SrRuO3) has emerged as a leading candidate for spintronic applications due to its unique combination of metallic conductivity, ferromagnetism, and strong spin-orbit coupling. Recent breakthroughs in epitaxial thin-film growth have enabled the fabrication of SrRuO3 layers with unprecedented crystalline quality, achieving lattice mismatches as low as 0.02%. This has led to enhanced magnetic properties, with Curie temperatures (Tc) reaching up to 165 K, a significant improvement over bulk values of 160 K. Advanced techniques such as pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) have been instrumental in achieving these results. The precise control over stoichiometry and strain engineering has also revealed a tunable magnetic anisotropy, with coercive fields ranging from 50 Oe to 500 Oe depending on the substrate and growth conditions.
The spin Hall effect (SHE) in SrRuO3 has garnered significant attention for its potential in generating spin currents without external magnetic fields. Recent experiments have demonstrated a giant spin Hall angle (θSH) of 0.15, which is among the highest reported for oxide materials. This was achieved by optimizing the thickness of SrRuO3 films to 10 nm, where the interplay between spin-orbit coupling and interfacial effects is maximized. Furthermore, spin-to-charge conversion efficiency measurements using inverse SHE have shown values exceeding 1.0 V/(A·m), making SrRuO3 a promising material for energy-efficient spintronic devices. These findings are supported by first-principles calculations that predict even higher θSH values under specific strain conditions.
The integration of SrRuO3 into heterostructures with other functional oxides has opened new avenues for spintronic applications. For instance, coupling SrRuO3 with antiferromagnetic LaFeO3 has led to the observation of exchange bias fields up to 200 Oe at room temperature. Additionally, the insertion of ultrathin insulating layers such as SrTiO3 between SrRuO3 and ferromagnetic layers has enabled the realization of tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) ratios exceeding 300% at low temperatures. These heterostructures also exhibit robust perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA), with effective anisotropy constants (Keff) reaching 1×10^6 erg/cm^3, which is crucial for high-density magnetic memory devices.
Recent advances in ultrafast magnetization dynamics have highlighted the potential of SrRuO3 for terahertz spintronics. Time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect (TR-MOKE) measurements have revealed sub-picosecond magnetization switching times in SrRuO3 films under femtosecond laser excitation. The observed switching speeds are attributed to the efficient transfer of angular momentum from optically generated spin currents to the ferromagnetic lattice. Moreover, THz emission spectroscopy has demonstrated that SrRuO3 can generate coherent THz pulses with amplitudes up to 1 kV/cm, making it a viable candidate for THz spintronic emitters and detectors.
The exploration of topological properties in SrRuO3 has unveiled its potential for hosting emergent phenomena such as skyrmions and Weyl fermions. Recent studies using Lorentz transmission electron microscopy (LTEM) have identified Néel-type skyrmions with diameters as small as 20 nm in strained SrRuO3 films at temperatures below Tc. Additionally, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements have provided evidence of Weyl nodes near the Fermi level, suggesting that SrRuO3 could be a platform for studying topological phase transitions in correlated oxides. These discoveries pave the way for integrating topological spintronics with conventional device architectures.
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