Carrier localization and electronic phase separation in a doped spin-orbit driven Mott phase in Sr3(Ir1-xRux)2O7

Abstract

Interest in many strongly spin-orbit coupled 5d-transition metal oxide insulators stems from mapping their electronic structures to a J=1/2 Mott phase. One of the hopes is to establish their Mott parent states and explore these systems' potential of realizing novel electronic states upon carrier doping. However, once doped, little is understood regarding the role of their reduced Coulomb interaction U relative to their strongly correlated 3d-electron cousins. Here we show that, upon hole-doping a candidate J=1/2 Mott insulator, carriers remain localized within a nanoscale phase separated ground state. A percolative metal-insulator transition occurs with interplay between localized and itinerant regions, stabilizing an antiferromagnetic metallic phase beyond the critical region. Our results demonstrate a surprising parallel between doped 5d- and 3d-electron Mott systems and suggest either through the near degeneracy of nearby electronic phases or direct carrier localization that U is essential to the carrier response of this doped spin-orbit Mott insulator.

25 pages, 4 figures in main text, 4 figures in supplemental text

References in corpus (11)

• Mott Insulators in the Strong Spin-Orbit Coupling Limit: From Heisenberg to a Quantum Compass and Kitaev Models
• Novel Jeff = 1/2 Mott State Induced by Relativistic Spin-Orbit Coupling in Sr2IrO4
• Mott transition in VO2 revealed by infrared spectroscopy and nano-imaging
• Bandwidth-Controlled Insulator-Metal Transition and Correlated Metallic State in 5$d$ Transition Metal Oxides Sr${}_{n+1}$Ir${}_n$O${}_{3n+1}$ ($n$=1, 2, and $\infty$)
• Twisted Hubbard Model for Sr2IrO4: Magnetism and Possible High Temperature Superconductivity
• Dimensionality Driven Spin-Flop Transition in Layered Iridates
• Fermi surface and van Hove singularities in the itinerant metamagnet Sr3Ru2O7
• Spin ordering and electronic texture in the bilayer iridate Sr${}_3$Ir${}_2$O${}_7$
• Local Tunneling Spectroscopy across a Metamagnetic Critical Point in the Bi-layer Ruthenate Sr3Ru2O7
• Exploiting B Site Disorder for Phase Control in the Manganites
• Mott and Band Insulator Transitions in the Binary Alloy Hubbard Model

Cited by in corpus (26)

• The influence of electron-doping on the ground state of (Sr{1-x}La{x})2IrO4
• First-order melting of a weak spin-orbit Mott insulator into a correlated metal
• Spin-orbit coupling, strong correlation, and insulator-metal transitions: the J${}_{\mathrm{eff}}$ =3\2 ferromagnetic Mott insulator Ba${}_2$NaOsO${}_6$
• A weakly correlated Fermi liquid state with a small Fermi surface in lightly doped Sr${}_3$Ir${}_2$O${}_7$
• Structural investigation of the bilayer iridate Sr3Ir2O7
• Evolution of competing magnetic order in the Jeff=1/2 insulating state of Sr2Ir1-xRuxO4
• Strong Pseudospin-Lattice Coupling in Sr3Ir2O7: Coherent Phonon Anomaly and Negative Thermal Expansion
• From Jeff=1/2 insulator to p-wave superconductor in single-crystal Sr2Ir1-xRuxO4 (0 < x< 1)
• Disorder induced power-law gaps in an insulator-metal Mott transition
• Coupling of lattice, spin and intra-configurational excitations of Eu3+ in Eu2ZnIrO6
• Structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of nearly-ideal $J_{\mathrm{eff}}$ $=$ 1/2 iridium halides
• Structural evolution and electronic properties of (Sr1-xCax)2-yIrO4+z spin-orbit assisted insulators
• Imaging antiferromagnetic domain fluctuations and the effect of atomic-scale disorder in a doped spin-orbit Mott insulator
• Probing the quantum phase transition in Mott insulator BaCoS_2 tuned by pressure and Ni-substitution
• Emergent charge order near the doping-induced Mott-insulating quantum phase transition in Sr${}_3$Ru${}_2$O${}_7$
• Origin of the different electronic structure of Rh- and Ru-doped Sr2IrO4
• Overdamped antiferromagnetic strange metal state in Sr${}_3$IrRuO${}_7$
• Hidden Phases Revealed at the Surface of Double-Layered Sr3(Ru1-xMnx)2O7
• Doping driven structural distortion in the bilayer iridate (Sr${}_{1-x}$La${}_x$)${}_3$Ir${}_2$O${}_7$
• Atomistic origin of metal versus charge-density-wave phase separation in indium atomic wires on Si(111)
• Spin-orbit excitons and electronic configuration of the $5d^4$ insulator Sr${}_3$Ir${}_2$O${}_7$F${}_2$
• Hallmarks of the Mott-Metal Crossover in the Hole Doped J=1/2 Mott insulator Sr2IrO4
• Sr${}_3$Ir${}_2$O${}_7$F${}_2$: Topochemical conversion of a relativistic Mott state into a spin-orbit driven band insulator
• Electron doping in ${\text{Sr}}_3{\text{Ir}}_2{\text{O}}_7$: collapse of band gap and magnetic order
• Evolution of the spectral lineshape at the magnetic transition in Sr2IrO4 and Sr3Ir2O7
• Anomalous Fermi pockets on Hund's metal surface of Sr2RuO4 induced by the correlation-enhanced spin-orbit coupling