Imaging of Strain Driven Magnetic Domains and Strong Spin-Phonon Coupling in Epitaxial Thin Films of SrRuO3

Abstract: Epitaxial thin films of SrRuO3 with large strain disorder were grown using pulsed laser deposition method which showed two distinct transition temperatures in Magnetic measurements. For the first time, we present visual evolution of magnetic domains across the two transitions using Magnetic force microscopy on these films. The study clearly showed that the magnetic anisotropy corresponding to the two transitions is different. It is observed that the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy is dominating in films which results in domain spin orientation preferably in out of plane direction. The Raman studies showed that the lattice is highly influenced by the magnetic order. The analysis of the phonon spectra around magnetic transition reveals the existence of strong spin-phonon coupling and the calculations resulted in spin-phonon coupling strength ({\lambda}) values of {\lambda} ~ 5 cm-1 and {\lambda} ~ 8.5 cm-1, for SrRuO3 films grown on LSAT and SrTiO3 single crystal substrates, respectively.