A Generic Sacrificial Layer for Wide‐Range Freestanding Oxides with Modulated Magnetic Anisotropy
Huining Peng, Nianpeng Lu, Shuzhen Yang, Yingjie Lyu, Zhiwei Liu, Yifan Bu, Shengchun Shen, Mingqiang Li, Zhuolu Li, Lei Gao, Sicheng Lu, Meng Wang, Hui Cao, Hua Zhou, Peng Gao, Hanghui Chen, Pu Yu
Abstract
Abstract Freestanding oxide nanomembranes have promising applications because of their novel electronic states and flexible crystalline structures. Several materials have been developed as sacrificial layers to exfoliate thin films from substrates via wet‐etching. However, these materials face great challenges in terms of either complicated crystalline structures or corrosive solutions. Here, a new sacrificial material, SrCoO 2.5 , is presented, which can be coherently grown with wide‐range strains and crystalline orientations and is also soluble in eco‐friendly solutions such as acetic acid, vinegar, and even carbonated drinks. With SrCoO 2.5 as the sacrificial layer, high‐quality freestanding ferromagnetic SrRuO 3 membranes are achieved from wide‐range epitaxial strains and different crystalline orientations. By investigating the evolution of the magnetic properties of these samples, it is discovered that epitaxial strain causes a distinct modification of the magnetic anisotropy of (001) pc ‐oriented SrRuO 3 samples, while its influence on the (110) pc and (111) pc samples is insignificant. This study not only demonstrates the freestanding SrRuO 3 as a promising material for flexible spintronic devices, but also offers a great opportunity to engineer a wide range of strained and oriented complex oxides for novel freestanding electronics using this newly developed sacrificial material.