Strain-Induced Metal-to-Insulator Transition in Antiferromagnetic SrCrO3 Thin Films
Abstract
Antiferromagnetic (AF) metals are rare, yet they combine properties attractive for spintronic devices like robustness against stray fields and electrical readout. Among AF metal oxide candidates, SrCrO3 remains largely unexplored due to its notoriously difficult synthesis. In this paper, we demonstrate the growth of high-quality SrCrO3 thin films by magnetron sputtering on substrates that impose a wide range of tensile and compressive strains. Muon spin relaxation experiments, supported by x-ray magnetic dichroism, unveil the emergence of an AF phase with dilute magnetic disorder at low temperatures, while resistivity measurements confirm the simultaneous metallic ground state of SrCrO3 under low strain. As both compressive and tensile strain increase, a metal-to-insulator transition is induced in the films, while the onset of the magnetic transition temperature remains unchanged. Moreover, an intriguing resistivity upturn, accompanied by a change in the dominant charge-carrier type, occurs at a temperature that correlates with strain. These observations suggest a complex strain-dependent band structure, with strain-induced Jahn-Teller distortions or tilting of the CrO6 octahedra that emerge depending on the sign of the strain, as inferred from density functional theory calculations.
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BibTeX
@misc{johr2026straininduced,
title = {{Strain-Induced Metal-to-Insulator Transition in Antiferromagnetic SrCrO$_3$ Thin Films}},
author = {S. Jöhr and A. Carta and J. Moreno and A. Suter and Z. Salman and A. Panda and J. Spring and G. De Luca and J. Herrero-Martin and B. Mundet and C. Piamonteze and M. Gabay and C. Ederer and M. Gibert},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.20486},
eprint = {2609.20486},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.20486},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Strain-Induced Metal-to-Insulator Transition in Antiferromagnetic SrCrO_3 Thin Films
AU - S. Jöhr
AU - A. Carta
AU - J. Moreno
AU - A. Suter
AU - Z. Salman
AU - A. Panda
AU - J. Spring
AU - G. De Luca
AU - J. Herrero-Martin
AU - B. Mundet
AU - C. Piamonteze
AU - M. Gabay
AU - C. Ederer
AU - M. Gibert
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/17
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.20486
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.20486
AB - Antiferromagnetic (AF) metals are rare, yet they combine properties attractive for spintronic devices like robustness against stray fields and electrical readout. Among AF metal oxide candidates, SrCrO_3 remains largely unexplored due to its notoriously difficult synthesis. In this paper, we demonstrate the growth of high-quality SrCrO_3 thin films by magnetron sputtering on substrates that impose a wide range of tensile and compressive strains. Muon spin relaxation experiments, supported by x-ray magnetic dichroism, unveil the emergence of an AF phase with dilute magnetic disorder at low temperatures, while resistivity measurements confirm the simultaneous metallic ground state of SrCrO_3 under low strain. As both compressive and tensile strain increase, a metal-to-insulator transition is induced in the films, while the onset of the magnetic transition temperature remains unchanged. Moreover, an intriguing resistivity upturn, accompanied by a change in the dominant charge-carrier type, occurs at a temperature that correlates with strain. These observations suggest a complex strain-dependent band structure, with strain-induced Jahn-Teller distortions or tilting of the CrO_6 octahedra that emerge depending on the sign of the strain, as inferred from density functional theory calculations.
ER -