Thickness-dependent insulator-to-metal transition in epitaxial RuO2 films

Abstract: Epitaxially grown RuO2 films on TiO2 (110) exhibit significant in-plane strain anisotropy, with a compressive strain of - 4.7% along the [001] crystalline direction and a tensile strain of +2.3% along [1-10]. As the film thickness increases, anisotropic strain relaxation is expected. By fabricating Hall bar devices with current channels along two in-plane directions <001> and <1-10>, we revealed anisotropic in-plane transport in RuO2/TiO2 (110) films grown via solid-source metal-organic molecular beam epitaxy approach. For film thicknesses (t_film) < 3.6 nm, the resistivity along <001> exceeds that along <1-10> direction at all temperatures. With further decrease in film thicknesses, we uncover a transition from metallic to insulating behavior at t_film <2.1 nm. Our combined temperature- and magnetic field-dependent electrical transport measurements reveal that this transition from metallic to insulating behavior is driven by electron-electron interactions.