Phase Instability amid Dimensional Crossover in Artificial Oxide Crystal

Abstract

Artificial crystals synthesized by atomic-scale epitaxy provides the ability to control the dimensions of the quantum phases and associated phase transitions via precise thickness modulation. In particular, reduction in dimensionality via quantized control of atomic layers is a powerful approach to revealing hidden electronic and magnetic phases. Here, we demonstrate a dimensionality-controlled and induced metal-insulator transition (MIT) in atomically designed superlattices by synthesizing a genuine two dimensional (2D) SrRuO3 crystal with highly suppressed charge transfer. The tendency to ferromagnetically align the spins in SrRuO3 layer diminishes in 2D as the interlayer exchange interaction vanishes, accompanying the 2D localization of electrons. Furthermore, electronic and magnetic instabilities in the two SrRuO3 unit cell layers induce a thermally-driven MIT along with a metamagnetic transition.

31 pages, 3 figures, 13 supplementary figures

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Cited by in corpus (21)

• Crystal Hall and crystal magneto-optical effect in thin films of SrRuO${}_3$
• Propagation control of octahedral tilt in SrRuO3 via artificial heterostructuring
• Unconventional interlayer exchange coupling via chiral phonons in synthetic magnetic oxide heterostructures
• The chiral Hall effect in canted ferromagnets and antiferromagnets
• Coupling charge and topological reconstructions at polar oxide interfaces
• Correlated Quantum Phenomena of Spin-Orbit Coupled Perovskite Oxide Heterostructures: Cases of SrRuO3 and SrIrO3-Based Artificial Superlattices
• Thickness dependence of electronic and crystal structures in VO${}_2$ ultrathin films: suppression of the collaborative Mott-Peierls transition
• Dimensional Control of Octahedral Tilt in SrRuO3 via Infinite-layered Oxides
• Tailoring topological Hall effect in SrRuO3/SrTiO3 superlattices
• Atomistic Engineering of Phonons in Functional Oxide Heterostructures
• Symmetry-Driven Spin-Wave Gap Modulation in Nanolayered SrRuO3/SrTiO3 Heterostructures: Implications for Spintronic Applications
• Tailoring the anomalous Hall effect of SrRuO${}_3$ thin films by strain: a first principles study
• Crystalline symmetry-dependent magnon formation in itinerant ferromagnet SrRuO3
• Quantum Confinement Induced Metal-Insulator Transition in Strongly Correlated Quantum Wells of SrVO${}_3$ Superlattice
• SrRuO${}_3$-SrTiO${}_3$ heterostructure as a possible platform for studying unconventional superconductivity in Sr${}_2$RuO${}_4$
• Atomic and Electronic Structures of Correlated SrRuO3/SrTiO3 Superlattices
• Dimensionality Engineering of Magnetic Anisotropy from Anomalous Hall Effect in Synthetic SrRuO3 Crystals
• Atomic-scale Modulation of Synthetic Magnetic Order in Oxide Superlattices
• Exotic magnetic anisotropy near digitized dimensional Mott boundary
• Observation of metallic electronic structure in a single-atomic-layer oxide
• Strain Engineering of van Hove Singularity and Coupled Itinerant Ferromagnetism in Quasi-2D Oxide Superlattices