Z-contrast STEM imaging of B cation ordering and microstructure of Sr2CrReO6 double perovskite thin films

Half-metallic compounds present a great potential for room-temperature applications at room Spintronics. Ferrimagnetic double perovskites (DP) with formula unit A2BB’O6) are candidates to exhibit half-metallicity and high Curie temperatures based on a modified perovskite structure where the BO6/B’O6 octahedra are arranged in a superstructure of two interleaving fcc sublattices antiferromagnetically coupled [1]. Sr2CrReO6 (SCRO) is a metallic ferromagnetic DP with one of the highest Curie temperature (TC=625 K) [2]. SCRO has a experimental saturation magnetization of MS=1.38 μB/f.u (the theoretical value is 1 μB/f.u) [3], but the existence of antisite (AS) defects at the B/B’ sites can reduce this value and also destroy the half-metallic nature of the material.