Investigations of metastable Ca2IrO4 epitaxial thin-films: systematic comparison with Sr2IrO4 and Ba2IrO4

Abstract

We have synthesized thermodynamically metastable Ca2IrO4 thin-films on YAlO3 (110) substrates by pulsed laser deposition. The epitaxial Ca2IrO4 thin-films are of K2NiF4-type tetragonal structure. Transport and optical spectroscopy measurements indicate that the electronic structure of the Ca2IrO4 thin-films is similar to that of Jeff = 1/2 spin-orbit-coupled Mott insulator Sr2IrO4 and Ba2IrO4, with the exception of an increased gap energy. The gap increase is to be expected in Ca2IrO4 due to its increased octahedral rotation and tilting, which results in enhanced electron-correlation, U/W. Our results suggest that the epitaxial stabilization growth of metastable-phase thin-films can be used effectively for investigating layered iridates and various complex-oxide systems.

arXiv comment10 pages, 3 figures

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Cited by in corpus (3)

• Optical Signatures of Spin-Orbit Exciton in Bandwidth Controlled Sr${}_2$IrO${}_4$ Epitaxial Films via High-Concentration Ca and Ba Doping
• Electronic and optical properties of La-doped Sr${}_3$Ir${}_2$O${}_7$ epitaxial thin-films
• The rich phase diagram of the prototypical iridate Ba${}_2$IrO${}_4$: Effective low-energy models and metal-insulator transition