Pressure-Induced Confined Metal from the Mott Insulator Sr3Ir2O7

Abstract

The spin-orbit Mott insulator Sr3Ir2O7 provides a fascinating playground to explore insulator-metal transition driven by intertwined charge, spin, and lattice degrees of freedom. Here, we report high pressure electric resistance and resonant inelastic x ray scattering measurements on single crystal Sr3Ir2O7 up to 63 65 GPa at 300 K. The material becomes a confined metal at 59.5 GPa, showing metallicity in the ab plane but an insulating behavior along the c axis. Such an unusual phenomenon resembles the strange metal phase in cuprate superconductors. Since there is no sign of the collapse of spin orbit or Coulomb interactions in x-ray measurements, this novel insulator metal transition is potentially driven by a first-order structural change at nearby pressures. Our discovery points to a new approach for synthesizing functional materials.

arXiv comment4-page 3-figure

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Cited by in corpus (20)

• The Challenge of Spin-Orbit-Tuned Ground States in Iridates
• Dimensionality-strain phase diagram of strontium iridates
• Strong Pseudospin-Lattice Coupling in Sr3Ir2O7: Coherent Phonon Anomaly and Negative Thermal Expansion
• Doping Evolution of Magnetic Order and Magnetic Excitations in (Sr${}_{1-x}$La${}_x$)${}_3$Ir${}_2$O${}_7$
• Novel spin-orbit coupling driven emergent states in iridate-based heterostructures
• First-order structural transition and pressure-induced lattice/phonon anomalies in Sr${}_2$IrO${}_4$
• Structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of nearly-ideal $J_{\mathrm{eff}}$ $=$ 1/2 iridium halides
• Pressure induced nonmonotonic evolution of superconductivity in 6R-TaS2 with a natural bulk van der Waals heterostructure
• Lattice frustration in spin-orbit Mott insulator Sr3Ir2O7 at high pressure
• High-pressure insulator-to-metal transition in Sr${}_3$Ir${}_2$O${}_7$ studied by x-ray absorption spectroscopy
• Microscopic description of insulator-metal transition in high-pressure oxygen
• Pressure tuning of structure, magnetic frustration and carrier conduction in Kitaev spin liquid candidate Cu${}_2$IrO${}_3$: X-ray, Raman, magnetic susceptibility, resistivity and first-principles analysis
• Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering of magnetic excitations under pressure
• Doping driven structural distortion in the bilayer iridate (Sr${}_{1-x}$La${}_x$)${}_3$Ir${}_2$O${}_7$
• Critical fluctuations in the spin-orbit Mott insulator Sr${}_3$Ir${}_2$O${}_7$
• Evolution of electronic and magnetic properties of Sr${}_2$IrO${}_4$ under strain
• Electron doping in ${\text{Sr}}_3{\text{Ir}}_2{\text{O}}_7$: collapse of band gap and magnetic order
• Exploring the energy landscape of resistive switching in antiferromagnetic Sr(3)Ir(2)O(7)
• Fortuitous partners of antiferromagnetic and Mott states in spin-orbit-coupled Sr2IrO4: A study of Sr2Ir1-xMxO4 (M=Fe or Co)
• Evidence for strong electron correlations in a non-symmorphic Dirac semimetal