Growth and magnetotransport study of thin ferromagnetic CrO2films

Highly a -axis-textured CrO 2 films have been deposited on Al 2 O 3 (0001) and on isostructural TiO 2 (100) substrates by a chemical vapour deposition technique. For Al 2 O 3 substrates a columnar growth of CrO 2 (010) on an initial Cr 2 O 3 (0001) layer has been found in transmission electron microscopy as well as in x-ray diffraction investigations. The sixfold in-plane symmetry of a (0001)-oriented Cr 2 O 3 initial layer leads to three equivalent in-plane orientations of the CrO 2 unit cell as confirmed by electron diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The growth can be understood by a simple model of the in-plane symmetries of the Al 2 O 3 (0001), Cr 2 O 3 (0001), and CrO 2 (010) lattices. The growth on TiO 2 (100) substrates leads to (100)-oriented CrO 2 films of higher crystalline quality than the ones grown on Al 2 O 3 (0001). Transmission electron microscope images show growth of CrO 2 (100) directly on the TiO 2 (100) substrates and no significant Cr 2 O 3 inclusions within the CrO 2 (100) layer. All contributions to the magnetoresistance (MR) due to anisotropic MR, Lorentz MR, spin disorder, and intergrain tunnelling MR have been determined and partly correlated with the crystalline properties of the samples investigated. For films of both types the intrinsic linear contribution to the high-field MR does not depend on the crystalline quality of the films and supports the suggested intrinsic double-exchange mechanism for CrO 2 .