Tuning the metal-insulator transition in epitaxial SrVO3 films by uniaxial strain

Abstract

Understanding of the metal-insulator transition (MIT) in correlated transition-metal oxides is a fascinating topic in condensed matter physics and a precise control of such transitions plays a key role in developing novel electronic devices. Here we report an effective tuning of the MIT in epitaxial SrVO3 (SVO) films by expanding the out-of-plane lattice constant without changing in-plane lattice parameters, through helium ion irradiation. Upon increase of the ion fluence, we observe a MIT with a crossover from metallic to insulating state in SVO films. A combination of transport and magnetoresistance measurements in SVO at low temperatures reveals that the observed MIT is mainly ascribed to electron-electron interactions rather than disorder-induced localization. Moreover, these results are well supported by the combination of density functional theory and dynamical mean field theory (DFT+DMFT) calculations, further confirming the decrease of the bandwidth and the enhanced electron-electron interactions resulting from the expansion of out-of-plane lattice constant. These findings provide new insights into the understanding of MIT in correlated oxides and perspectives for the design of unexpected functional devices based on strongly correlated electrons.

arXiv comment17 pages, 4 figures,submitted to Phys. Rev. Materials

References in corpus (16)

• Quantum Monte Carlo Impurity Solver for Cluster DMFT and Electronic Structure Calculations in Adjustable Base
• Dynamical Mean-Field Theory within the Full-Potential Methods: Electronic structure of Ce-115 materials
• Saturation of electrical resistivity
• Metal-insulator transition in ultrathin LaNiO3 films
• Orbital-selective Mott transitions in the degenerate Hubbard model
• Band-width control in a perovskite-type 3d^1 correlated metal Ca_{1-x}Sr_xVO_3. I. Evolution of the electronic properties and effective mass
• Phenomenology of the normal state in-plane transport properties of high-$T_c$ cuprates
• Tuning bad metal and non-Fermi liquid behavior in a Mott material: rare earth nickelate thin films
• Strain Doping: Reversible Single-Axis Control of a Complex Oxide Lattice via Helium Implantation
• Electronics with correlated oxides: SrVO${}_3$/SrTiO${}_3$ as a Mott transistor
• Strain-induced ferromagnetism in antiferromagnetic LuMnO3 thin films
• Metal-insulator transition induced in SrTi_{1-x}V_xO_3 thin films
• Defect-induced exchange bias in a single SrRuO3 layer
• Electron Confinement, Orbital Ordering, and Orbital Moments in $d^0$-$d^1$ Oxide Heterostructures
• Metal-insulator transition in CaVO${}_3$ thin films: interplay between epitaxial strain, dimensional confinement, and surface effects
• Interface chemical and electronic properties of LaAlO3/SrVO3 heterostructures

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Electron-Phonon Coupling and Electron-Phonon Scattering in SrVO${}_3$
• On the origin of supertetragonality in BaTiO${}_3$
• Zoology of spin and orbital fluctuations in ultrathin oxide films
• Coupling of electronic and structural degrees of freedom in vanadate superlattices
• Giant Strain Tunability in Polycrystalline Ceramic Films via Helium Implantation