Strong Magnetic Anisotropy of Epitaxial PrVO₃ Thin Films on SrTiO₃ Substrates with Different Orientations

We have probed the structural and magnetic properties of PrVO₃ (PVO) thin films grown on the (001)-, (110)-, and (111)-oriented SrTiO₃ (STO) substrates. By changing the substrate orientation, the film out-of-plane orientation can be tuned to [110], [100]/[010], and [011]/[311], with different in-plane crystallographic variants. Accommodation of these variants on the different substrates implies different strain states, which have direct influence on the magnetic properties of PVO films. The magnetic moment of PVO films radically enhances from 0.4 μ_B/f.u. for STO(001) to 2.3 μ_B/f.u. for STO(111). While films on the (001)-oriented STO substrate display out-of-plane anisotropy, an in-plane anisotropy is observed for films grown on the (110)- and (111)-oriented STO substrates. In addition, a strong uniaxial magnetic anisotropy is also extracted for a partially relaxed film on the (110)-oriented STO substrate. Such findings can help oxide community for the better understanding of magnetic anisotropy in vanadate thin films, a subject that still suffer from significant lack of scientific investigations.