Epitaxial growth and antiferromagnetism of Sn-substituted perovskite iridate SrIr0.8Sn0.2O3

5d iridates have shown vast emergent phenomena due to a strong interplay among their lattice, charge, and spin degrees of freedom, because of which the potential in spintronic application of the thin-film form is highly leveraged. Here we have epitaxially stabilized perovskite SrIr0.8Sn0.2O3 on [001] SrTiO3 substrates through pulsed laser deposition and systematically characterized the structural, electronic, and magnetic properties. Physical property measurements unravel an insulating ground state with a weak ferromagnetism in the compressively strained epitaxial film. The octahedral rotation pattern is identified by synchrotron x-ray diffraction, resolving a mix of a(+)b(-)c(-) and a(-)b(+)c(-) domains. X-ray magnetic resonant scattering directly demonstrates a G-type antiferromagnetic structure of the magnetic order and the spin canting nature of the weak ferromagnetism.