Sign reversal of anisotropic magnetoresistance and anomalous thickness-dependent resistivity in Sr2CrWO6/SrTiO3 films

High-quality Sr₂CrWO₆ (SCWO) films have been grown on SrTiO₃ (STO) substrate by pulsed laser deposition under low oxygen pressure. With decrease of the film thickness, a drastic conductivity increase is observed. The Hall measurements show that the thicker the film, the lower the carrier density. An extrinsic mechanism of charge doping due to the dominance of oxygen vacancies at SCWO/STO interfaces is proposed. The distribution and gradient of carrier concentration in SCWO films are considered to be related to this phenomenon. Resistivity behavior observed in these films is found to follow the variable range hopping model. It is revealed that with increase of the film thickness, the extent of disorder in the lattice increases, which gives a clear evidence of disorder-induced localization charge carriers in these films. Magnetoresistance measurements show that there is a negative magnetoresistance in SCWO films, which is considered to be caused by the magnetic scattering of magnetic elements Cr³⁺ and W⁵⁺. In addition, a sign reversal of anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) in SCWO film is observed for the first time, when the temperature varies across a characteristic value, T_M. Magnetization—temperature measurements demonstrate that this AMR sign reversal is caused by the direction transition of easy axis of magnetization from the in-plane ferromagnetic order at T > T_M to the out-of-plane at T < T_M.