Interplay of point defects, biaxial strain, and thermal conductivity in homoepitaxial SrTiO{sub 3} thin films

Separating out effects of point defects and lattice strain on thermal conductivity is essential for improvement of thermoelectric properties of SrTiO{sub 3}. We study relations between defects generated during deposition, induced lattice strain, and their impact on thermal conductivity {kappa} in homoepitaxial SrTiO{sub 3} films prepared by ion-beam sputtering. Lowering the deposition temperature gives rise to lattice expansion by enhancement of point defect density which increases the hardness of the films. Due to a fully coherent substrate-film interface, the lattice misfit induces a large biaxial strain. However, we can show that the temperature dependence of {kappa} is mainly sensitive on the defect concentration.