Evolution of electronic band reconstruction in thickness-controlled perovskite SrRuO$_3$ thin films

TL;DR

This study investigates how the electronic structure of SrRuO₃ thin films evolves with thickness, revealing reconstructed electronic states linked to structural changes, using advanced spectroscopic and diffraction techniques.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the thickness-dependent electronic and structural evolution of SrRuO₃ thin films, a topic previously underexplored.

Findings

Different electronic structures observed at various thicknesses

Surface octahedral rotations estimated from spectral intensities

Methodology links structural variation to photoemission data

Abstract

Transition metal perovskite oxides display a variety of emergent phenomena which are tunable by tailoring the oxygen octahedral rotation. SrRuO$_3$, a ferromagnetic perovskite oxide, is well-known to have various atomic structures and octahedral rotations when grown as thin films. However, how the electronic structure changes with the film thickness has been hardly studied. Here, by using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and electron diffraction techniques, we study the electronic structure of SrRuO$_3$ thin films as a function of the film thickness. Different reconstructed electronic structures and spectral weights are observed for films with various thicknesses. We suggest that octahedral rotations on the surface can be qualitatively estimated via comparison of intensities of different bands. Our observation and methodology shed light on how structural variation and transition may be understood in terms of photoemission spectroscopy data.