Switching behavior and its strain dependence in epitaxial CrO₂ thin films

Abstract

Chromium dioxide thin films grown epitaxially on TiO2 substrates exhibited a strong in-plane uniaxial anisotropy. Field dependence of high frequency (106 Hz) transverse susceptibility (ΧT) measurements were used to probe the magnetic anisotropy and switching in CrO2 films for varying temperature (10 K to 300 K) and different orientations of the applied field with respect to the magnetic easy axis. Singular peaks in ΧT were observed and are associated with the anisotropy and switching fields. The ΧT data at low temperatures reveal an unusual variation of the singular peaks. This can be described by including magnetoelastic contributions resulting from the in-plane tensile strain in the film due to lattice mismatch with the substrate.