The effect of strain on nonlinear temperature dependence of resistivity in SrMoO3 and SrMoO3−xNx films

Highly oriented $SrMoO_3$ thin films have been fabricated by pulsed laser deposition of $SrMoO_4$ in hydrogen. The films are found to grow along the (1 0 0) direction on $LaAlO_3$ (1 0 0) and $SrTiO_3$ (1 0 0) substrates. The method has been extended for the fabrication of oxynitride thin films, using ammonia as the reducing medium. The resistivity measurements show nonlinear temperature dependent $(T^n)$ behaviour in the temperature interval of 10–300 K. The conduction mechanism is largely affected by the strain due to the substrate lattice. A combination of $T$ and $T^2$ dependence of resistivity on temperature is observed for films having lesser lattice mismatch with the substrate. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic studies confirm the formation of $SrMoO_3$ and $SrMoO_3-xN_x$ films.