  Electronic transport has been investigated for strong spin-orbit coupled
perovskite SrIrO3 thin films grown at various substrate temperatures. The
electronic transport of the SrIrO3 films is found to be very sensitive to the
growth parameters; in particular, the film can either be a metal or an
insulator depending upon the substrate growth temperature. While all the
metallic films show unusual sublinear temperature dependent non-Fermi liquid
behaviors in resistivity, the insulating film grown at a higher temperature
stands out for its inhomogeneous Ir distribution, as analyzed by secondary ion
mass spectrometry. This observation demonstrates that the inhomogeneous
distribution of cations can be one of the fundamental factors in affecting the
electronic transport in heavy element based oxide films and heterostructures.
