Effect of oxygen vacancies on the electronic structure and transport properties of SrRuO3 thin films

Epitaxial SrRuO3 films were grown under different oxygen partial pressures inducing different amounts of oxygen vacancies. In spite of microstructural disorders, a considerable improvement in the conductivity was observed at ambient temperature with increasing the oxygen vacancies. The oxygen vacancies are responsible for the conductivity improvement by enhancing the orbital overlap between Ru dz2 and O pz orbitals. The finding indicates that the oxygen vacancy plays an important role in determining the transport properties of perovskite oxides, by modifying their electronic structures.