Growth and engineering of perovskite SrIrO3 thin films

Abstract: 5d transition-metal-based oxides display emergent phenomena due to the competition between the relevant energy scales of the correlation, bandwidth, and most importantly, the strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC). Starting from the prediction of novel oxide topological insulators in bilayer ABO3 (B = 5d elements) thin-film grown along the (111) direction, 5d-based perovskites (Pv) form a new paradigm in the thin-film community. Here, we reviewed the scientific accomplishments in Pv-SrIrO3 thin films, a popular candidate for observing non-trivial topological phenomena. Although the predicted topological phenomena are unknown, the Pv-SrIrO3 thin film shows many emergent properties due to the delicate interplay between its various degrees of freedom. These observations provide new physical insight and encourage further research on the design of new 5d-based heterostructures or superlattices for the observation of the hidden topological quantum phenomena in strong spin-orbit coupled oxides.