No Arabic abstract
We investigated the electronic properties of epitaxially stabilized perovskite SrIrO3 and demonstrated the effective strain-control on its electronic structure. Comprehensive transport measurements showed that the strong spin-orbit coupling renders a novel semimetallic phase for the J_eff=1/2 electrons rather than an ordinary correlated metal, elucidating the nontrivial mechanism underlying the dimensionality-controlled metal-insulator transition in iridates. The electron-hole symmetry of this correlated semimetal was found to exhibit drastic variation when subject to bi-axial strain. Under compressive strain, substantial electron-hole asymmetry is observed in contrast to the tensile side, where the electron and hole effective masses are comparable, illustrating the susceptivity of the J_eff=1/2 to structural distortion. Tensile strain also shrinks the Fermi surface, indicative of an increasing degree of correlation which is consistent with optical measurements. These results pave a pathway to investigate and manipulate the electronic states in spin-orbit-coupled correlated oxides, and lay the foundation for constructing 5d transition metal heterostructures.
Single crystals of the perovskite-type $3d^{1}$ metallic alloy system Ca$_{1-x}$Sr$_x$VO$_3$ were synthesized in order to investigate metallic properties near the Mott transition. The substitution of a Ca$^{2+}$ ion for a Sr$^{2+}$ ion reduces the band width $W$ due to a buckling of the V-O-V bond angle from $sim180^circ$ for SrVO$_3$ to $sim160^circ$ for CaVO$_3$. Thus, the value of $W$ can be systematically controlled without changing the number of electrons making Ca$_{1-x}$Sr$_x$VO$_3$: one of the most ideal systems for studying band-width effects. The Sommerfeld-Wilsons ratio ($simeq2$), the Kadowaki-Woods ratio (in the same region as heavy Fermion systems), and a large $T^{2}$ term in the electric resistivity, even at 300 K, substantiate a large electron correlation in this system, though the effective mass, obtained by thermodynamic and magnetic measurements, shows only a systematic but moderate increase in going from SrVO$_3$ to CaVO$_3$, in contrast to the critical enhancement expected from the Brinkmann-Rice picture. It is proposed that the metallic properties observed in this system near the Mott transition can be explained by considering the effect of a non-local electron correlation.
Obtaining high-quality thin films of 5d transition metal oxides is essential to explore the exotic semimetallic and topological phases predicted to arise from the combination of strong electron correlations and spin-orbit coupling. Here, we show that the transport properties of SrIrO3 thin films, grown by pulsed laser deposition, can be optimized by considering the effect of laser-induced modification of the SrIrO3 target surface. We further demonstrate that bare SrIrO3 thin films are subject to degradation in air and are highly sensitive to lithographic processing. A crystalline SrTiO3 cap layer deposited in-situ is effective in preserving the film quality, allowing us to measure metallic transport behavior in films with thicknesses down to 4 unit cells. In addition, the SrTiO3 encapsulation enables the fabrication of devices such as Hall bars without altering the film properties, allowing precise (magneto)transport measurements on micro- and nanoscale devices.
We report a comprehensive investigation of the triple perovskite iridate Ba$_{3}$CoIr$_{2}$O$_{9}$. Stabilizing in the hexagonal $P6_{3}/mmc$ symmetry at room temperature, this system transforms to a monoclinic $C2/c$ symmetry at the magnetic phase transition. On further reduction in temperature, the system partially distorts to an even lower symmetry ($P2/c$), with both these structurally disparate phases coexisting down to the lowest measured temperatures. The magnetic structure as determined from neutron diffraction data indicates a weakly canted antiferromagnetic structure, which is also supported by first-principles calculations. Theory indicates that the Ir$^{5+}$ carries a finite magnetic moment, which is also consistent with the neutron data. This suggests that the putative $J=0$ state is avoided. Measurements of heat capacity, electrical resistance noise and dielectric susceptibility all point towards the stabilization of a highly correlated ground state in the Ba$_{3}$CoIr$_{2}$O$_{9}$ system.
Ba(Fe$_{1/2}$Nb$_{1/2}$)O$_{3}$ (BFN) ceramics are considered to be a potential candidate for technological applications owing to their high dielectric constant over a wide range of temperature values. However, there exists considerable discrepancy over the structural details. We address this discrepancy through a comparative analysis of the earlier reported structures and combined X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) at room temperature and Neutron Powder Diffraction (NPD) measurements in the range of 5K up to room temperature. Our study reveals a cubic structure with space group $Pmbar{3}m$ at all measured temperatures. The local environment of the Fe ions is investigated using X-ray Near Edge Structure (XANES) and Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS) technique. A detailed investigation of the electronic properties of the synthesized BFN ceramics is carried out by combination of theoretical and experimental tools: X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and density functional theory (DFT) within GGA$+U$. The bandgap is estimated using the diffuse reflectance measurements in the UV-Vis-NIR range and an appropriate value of the electron-electron correlation strength $U$ is estimated based on the UV-Vis-NIR and the XAS spectra.
To probe the charge scattering mechanism in Cd$_{3}$As$_{2}$ single crystal, we have analyzed the temperature and magnetic field dependence of the Seebeck coefficient ($S$). The large saturation value of $S$ at high field clearly demonstrates the linear energy dispersion of three-dimensional Dirac fermion. A wide tunability of the charge scattering mechanism has been realized by varying the strength of the magnetic field and carrier density via In doping. With the increase in magnetic field, the scattering time crosses over from being nearly energy independent to a regime of linear dependence. On the other hand, the scattering time enters into the inverse energy-dependent regime and the Fermi surface strongly modifies with 2% In doping at Cd site. With further increase in In content from 2 to 4%, we did not observe any Shubnikov-de Haas oscillation up to 9 T field, but the magnetoresistance is found to be quite large as in the case of undoped sample.