Evolution of the electronic structure of a Mott system across its phase diagram: an X-ray absorption spectroscopy study of (V(1-x)Crx)2O3

Abstract

V2O3 is an archetypal system for the study of correlation induced, Mott-Hubbard metal-insulator transitions. Despite decades of extensive investigations, the accurate description of its electronic properties remains an open problem in the physics of strongly correlated materials, also because of the lack of detailed experimental data on its electronic structure over the whole phase diagram. We present here a high resolution X-ray absorption spectroscopy study at the V K-edge of (V(1-x)Crx)2O3 to probe its electronic structure as a function of temperature, doping and pressure, providing an accurate picture of the electronic changes over the whole phase diagram. We also discuss the relevance of the parallel evolution of the lattice parameters, determined with X-ray diffraction. This allows us to draw two conclusions of general interest: first, the transition under pressure presents peculiar properties, related to a more continuous evolution of the lattice and electronic structure; second, the lattice mismatch is a good parameter describing the strength of the first order transition, and is consequently related to the tendency of the system towards the coexistence of different phases. Our results show that the evolution of the electronic structure while approaching a phase transition, and not only while crossing it, is also a key element to unveil the underlying physical mechanisms of Mott materials .

References in corpus (5)

• A Microscopic View on the Mott transition in Chromium-doped V2O3
• Enhanced Crystal Field Splitting and Orbital Selective Coherence by Strong Correlations in V_2O_3
• Quasiparticle evolution and pseudogap formation in V2O3: An infrared spectroscopy study
• Inequivalent routes across the Mott transition in V2O3 explored by X-ray absorption
• Photoemission study of (V${}_{1-x}$M${}_x$)${}_2$O${}_3$ (M=Cr, Ti)

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Mott-Hubbard transition in V2O3 revisited
• Approaching finite-temperature phase diagrams of strongly correlated materials: a case study for V2O3
• Metal-Insulator Transition and Lattice Instability of Paramagnetic V2O3
• Room temperature Mott metal-insulator transition in V2O3 compounds induced via strain-engineering
• How chromium doping affects the correlated electronic structure of V2O3
• Atomic and itinerant effects at the transition metal x-ray absorption K-pre-edge exemplified in the case of V${}_2$O${}_3$
• Realistic many-body approaches to materials with strong nonlocal correlations