American Institute of Physics, Journal of Applied Physics, 11(95), p. 7213
DOI: 10.1063/1.1682785
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We report a systematic study of the low-temperature electrical conductivity in a series of SrRuO3 epitaxial thin films. At relatively high temperature the films display the conventional metallic behavior. However, a well-defined resistivity minimum appears at low temperature. This temperature dependence can be well described in a weak localization scenario: the resistivity minimum arising from the competition of electronic self-interference effects and the normal metallic character. By appropriate selection of the film growth conditions, we have been able to modify the mean-free path of itinerant carriers and thus to tune the relative strength of the quantum effects. We show that data can be quantitatively described by available theoretical models. © 2004 American Institute of Physics.