Structural, magnetic, and electronic properties of GdTiO3 Mott insulator thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition

TL;DR

This study successfully synthesizes epitaxial GdTiO3 thin films with controlled magnetic and electronic properties using pulsed laser deposition, highlighting their potential for strongly correlated oxide interface applications.

Contribution

First demonstration of high-quality epitaxial GdTiO3 thin films with optimized magnetic and electronic properties grown by pulsed laser deposition.

Findings

Curie temperature of 31.8 K and saturation magnetization of 4.2 μB per formula unit.

Films are fully strained and free of impurity phases.

Optical band gap measured at 0.7 eV, matching bulk values.

Abstract

We report on the optimization process to synthesize epitaxial thin films of GdTiO3 on SrLaGaO4 substrates by pulsed laser deposition. Optimized films are free of impurity phases and are fully strained. They possess a magnetic Curie temperature TC = 31.8 K with a saturation magnetization of 4.2 muB per formula unit at 10 K. Transport measurements reveal an insulating response, as expected. Optical spectroscopy indicates a band gap of 0.7 eV, comparable to the bulk value. Our work adds ferrimagnetic orthotitanates to the palette of perovskite materials for the design of emergent strongly correlated states at oxide interfaces using a versatile growth technique such as pulsed laser deposition.