Double Perovskite Sr2FeMoO6: A Potential Candidate for Room Temperature Magnetoresistance Device Applications

Abstract

The family of double perovskites first received attention in the 1960s, but the discovery of low field magnetoresistnace (LFMR) and half metallicity of the Sr2 FeMoO6 (SFMO) com- pound was made by Kobayashi et al. in 1998. A fully spin polarized half-metal SFMO (Tc > 400) with excellent magnetoresistance response relatively at small applied fields and high temperatures makes SFMO an ideal candidate for room temperature spintronics applica- tions. Primarily, most of the research work on double perovskites SFMO has been focused on bulk ceramic samples and aimed to understand their structural, magnetic, and magneto- transport properties, along with correlation among them. A material such as SFMO that exhibits a large decrease in resistivity and magnetically order well above room tempera- ture is necessary for the advancement of spintronic devices. If the bulk properties observed could be reproduced in thin films, industrially produced SFMO-based spintronic devices could become a reality. Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to present the detailed background and descriptions of the double perovskite Sr2 FeMoO6 (SFMO) thin films and heterostructures with main emphasis to improve or achieve room temperature magnetore- sistance properties especially for room temperature magnetoresistive device applications.