Tunable electron scattering mechanism in plasmonic SrMoO3 thin films

4d transition metal perovskite oxides serve as suitable testbeds for the study of strongly correlated metallic properties. Among these, SrMoO3 (SMO) exhibits remarkable electrical conductivity at room temperature. The temperature-dependent resistivity (ρ(T)) exhibits a Fermi-liquid behavior below the transition temperature T∗, reflecting the dominant electron-electron interaction. Above T∗, electron-phonon interaction becomes more appreciable. In this study, we employed the power-law scaling of ρ(T) to rigorously determine the T∗. We further demonstrate that the T∗ can be modified substantially by ∼40 K in epitaxial thin films. It turns out that the structural quality determines T∗. Whereas the plasma frequency could be tuned by the change in the electron-electron interaction via the effective mass enhancement, we show that the plasmonic properties are more directly governed by the electron-impurity scattering. The facile control of the electron scattering mechanism through structural quality modulation can be useful for plasmonic sensing applications in the visible region.