Anisotropic magnetoresistance in spin-orbit semimetal SrIrO3

Abstract: SrIrO3, the three-dimensional member of the Ruddlesden-Popper iridates, is a paramagnetic semimetal characterised by a the delicate interplay between spin-orbit coupling and Coulomb repulsion. In this work, we study the anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) of SrIrO3 thin films, which is closely linked to spin-orbit coupling and probes correlations between electronic transport, magnetic order and orbital states. We show that the low-temperature negative magnetoresistance is anisotropic with respect to the magnetic field orientation, and its angular dependence reveals the appearance of a fourfold symmetric component above a critical magnetic field. We show that this AMR component is of magnetocrystalline origin, and attribute the observed transition to a field-induced magnetic state in SrIrO3.