  By using electrochemical etching, we fabricated conductive ultrathin SrVO3
(SVO) films that exhibited metallic behavior down to 3 monolayers (ML). From an
observed systematic change in transport properties with decreasing film
thickness, it was found that the disorder in the films remained nearly
unchanged during etching, and only the thickness was reduced. This is in
contrast to the insulating behavior found for as-deposited SVO ultrathin films.
For the etched films, the electron mobility at 200 K decreased with decreasing
film thickness below 10 ML, originating from an increased scattering rate and
electron effective mass near the metal-insulator transition. A slight upturn in
the resistivity and a positive magnetoresistance at low temperatures were
typically observed for the etched films down to 3 ML, which was explained by
weak anti-localization of electrons in a weakly disordered metal.
