Length-scales of interfacial coupling between metal-insulator phases in oxides

Abstract

Controlling phase transitions in transition metal oxides remains a central feature of both technological and fundamental scientific relevance. A well-known example is the metal-insulator transition which has been shown to be highly controllable while a less well understood aspect of this phenomenon is the length scale over which the phases can be established. To gain further insight into this issue, we have atomically engineered an artificially phase separated system through fabricating epitaxial superlattices consisting of SmNiO${}_3$ and NdNiO${}_3$, two materials undergoing a metal-to-insulator transition at different temperatures. By combining advanced experimental techniques and theoretical modeling, we demonstrate that the length scale of the metal-insulator transition is controlled by the balance of the energy cost of the domain wall between a metal and insulator and the bulk energetics. Notably, we show that the length scale of this effect exceeds that of the physical coupling of structural motifs, introducing a new paradigm for interface-engineering properties that are not available in bulk

38 pages, 6 figures, typos corrected

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Cited by in corpus (14)

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• Correlated Quantum Phenomena of Spin-Orbit Coupled Perovskite Oxide Heterostructures: Cases of SrRuO3 and SrIrO3-Based Artificial Superlattices
• Trigonal Symmetry Breaking and its Electronic Effects in Two-Dimensional Dihalides and Trihalides
• From hidden metal-insulator transition to Planckian-like dissipation by tuning disorder in a nickelate
• Synthesis of thin film infinite-layer nickelates by atomic hydrogen reduction: clarifying the role of the capping layer
• Control of the metal-insulator transition in NdNiO${}_3$ thin films through the interplay between structural and electronic properties
• Gigantic-oxidative atomic-layer-by-layer epitaxy for artificially designed complex oxides
• Interface and bulk superconductivity in superconducting heterostructures with enhanced critical temperatures
• PERSPECTIVE: Emergent phases in rare earth nickelate heterostructures
• InterPhon: Ab initio Interface Phonon Calculations within a 3D Electronic Structure Framework
• Tuning Structural, Transport and Magnetic Properties of Epitaxial SrRuO3 through Ba-Substitution
• Emerging Microelectronic Materials by Design: Navigating Combinatorial Design Space with Scarce and Dispersed Data
• Elastic stripes formation at electronic transitions