Direct visualization of ambipolar Mott transition in cuprate CuO2 planes

Abstract

Identifying the essence of doped Mott insulators is one of the major outstanding problems in condensed matter physics and the key to understanding the high-temperature superconductivity in cuprates. We report real space visualization of Mott transition in Sr1-xLaxCuO2+y cuprate films that cover the entire electron- and hole-doped regimes. Tunneling conductance measurements directly on the cooper-oxide (CuO2) planes reveal a systematic shift in the Fermi level, while the fundamental Mott-Hubbard band structure remains unchanged. This is further demonstrated by exploring atomic-scale electronic response of CuO2 to substitutional dopants and intrinsic defects in a sister compound Sr0.92Nd0.08CuO2. The results could be better explained in the framework of self-modulation doping, similar to that in semiconductor heterostructures, and form a basis for developing any microscopic theories for cuprate superconductivity.

arXiv comment5 pages, 4 figures, See Supplemental Material at https://journals.aps.org/prl/supplemental/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.077002

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Cited by in corpus (11)

• Local gate control of Mott metal-insulator transition in a 2D metal-organic framework
• Momentum-Resolved Visualization of Electronic Evolution in Doping a Mott Insulator
• Direct observation of nodeless superconductivity and phonon modes in electron-doped copper oxide Sr${}_{1-x}$Nd${}_x$CuO${}_2$
• Emergence of Quasiparticles in a Doped Mott Insulator
• Percolative Superconductivity in Electron-Doped Sr${}_{1-x}$Eu${}_x$CuO${}_{2+y}$ Films
• Experimental observation of pseudogap in a modulation-doped Mott insulator: Sn/Si(111)-($\sqrt{3}\times \sqrt{3}$)-R30${}^{\text{o}}$
• Electronic inhomogeneity and band structure on superstructural CuO2 planes of infinite-layer Sr0.94La0.06CuO2+y films
• Ambipolar doping of a charge-transfer insulator in the Emery model
• Exploring charge and spin fluctuations in infinite-layer cuprate SrCuO${}_2$ from a phonon perspective
• Continuously Doping Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O 8+δ into Electron-Doped Superconductor by CaH 2 Annealing Method
• An emergent quasi-2D metallic state derived from the Mott insulator framework