Electronic and magnetic properties of triple-layered ruthenate Sr ₄Ru₃O₁₀ single crystals grown by a floating-zone method

We have grown high-quality single crystals of the triple-layered perovskite ruthenate Sr₄Ru₃O₁₀ using a floating-zone (FZ) method and measured their electronic transport and magnetic properties. Our experiments results are consistent with those previously reported for Sr ₄Ru₃O₁₀ flux crystals; the magnetic ground state of Sr₄Ru₃O₁₀ is poised between an itinerant metamagnetic and itinerant ferromagnetic state, and its electronic ground state is a Fermi liquid. In addition, we have investigated the effect of disorder on the metallic state of Sr₄Ru₃O₁₀. From resistivity measurements of various Sr₄Ru₃O ₁₀ crystals with different levels of disorder, we found that disorder enhances both temperature-independent elastic scattering and also temperature-dependent inelastic scattering. The in-plane metamagnetic transition is also found to be sensitive to disorder. Disorder results in an increase in the metamagnetic transition field and different magnetic behavior above the transition. We discuss the implications of this interesting observation.