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Electronic transport has been investigated for strong spin-orbit coupled perovskite SrIrO3 thin films grown at various substrate temperatures. The electronic transport of the SrIrO3 films is found to be very sensitive to the growth parameters; in particular, the film can either be a metal or an insulator depending upon the substrate growth temperature. While all the metallic films show unusual sublinear temperature dependent non-Fermi liquid behaviors in resistivity, the insulating film grown at a higher temperature stands out for its inhomogeneous Ir distribution, as analyzed by secondary ion mass spectrometry. This observation demonstrates that the inhomogeneous distribution of cations can be one of the fundamental factors in affecting the electronic transport in heavy element based oxide films and heterostructures.
We investigated the nature of transport and magnetic properties in SrIr0.5Ru0.5O3, (SIRO) which has characteristics intermediate between a correlated non-Fermi liquid state and an itinerant Fermi liquid state, by growing perovskite thin films on various substrates (SrTiO3 (001), (LaAlO3)0.3(Sr2TaAlO6)0.7 (001) and LaAlO3 (001)). We observed systematic variation of underlying substrate dependent metal-to-insulator transition temperatures at 80 K on SrTiO3, 90 K on (LaAlO3)0.3(Sr2TaAlO6)0.7 and 100 K on LaAlO3) in resistivity. Resistivity in the metallic region follows a T3/2 power law; whereas insulating nature at low T is due to the localization effect. Magnetoresistance (MR) measurement of SIRO on SrTiO3 (001) shows negative MR upto 25 K and positive MR above 25 K, with negative MR proportional to B1/2 and positive MR proportional to B2; consistent with the localized-to-normal transport crossover dynamics. Furthermore, observed spin glass like behavior of SIRO on SrTiO3 (001) in the localized regime, validates the hypothesis that (Anderson) localization favors glassy ordering. These remarkable features provide a promising approach for future applications and of fundamental interest in oxide thin films.
Transition metal oxides, in particular, 3d or 4d perovskites have provided diverse emergent physics that originates from the coupling of various degrees of freedom such as spin, lattice, charge, orbital, and also disorder. 5d perovskites form a distinct class because they have strong spin-orbit coupling that introduces to the system an additional energy scale that is comparable to bandwidth and Coulomb correlation. Consequent new physics includes novel Jeff = 1/2 Mott insulators, metal-insulator transitions, spin liquids, and topological insulators. After highlighting some of the phenomena appearing in Ruddlesden-Popper iridate series Srn+1IrnO3n+1, we focus on the transport properties of perovskite SrIrO3. Using epitaxial thin films on various substrates, we demonstrate that metal-insulator transitions can be induced in perovskite SrIrO3 by reducing its thickness or by imposing compressive strain. The metal-insulator transition driven by thickness reduction is due to disorder, but the metal-insulator transition driven by compressive strain is accompanied by peculiar non-Fermi liquid behaviors, possibly due to the delicate interplay between correlation, disorder, and spin-orbit coupling. We examine various theoretical frameworks to understand the non-Fermi liquid physics and metal-insulator transition that occurs in SrIrO3 and offer the Mott-Anderson-Griffiths scenario as a possible solution.
5d transition-metal-based oxides display emergent phenomena due to the competition between the relevant energy scales of the correlation, bandwidth, and most importantly, the strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC). Starting from the prediction of novel oxide topological insulators in bilayer ABO3 (B = 5d elements) thin-film grown along the (111) direction, 5d-based perovskites (Pv) form a new paradigm in the thin-film community. Here, we reviewed the scientific accomplishments in Pv-SrIrO3 thin films, a popular candidate for observing non-trivial topological phenomena. Although the predicted topological phenomena are unknown, the Pv-SrIrO3 thin film shows many emergent properties due to the delicate interplay between its various degrees of freedom. These observations provide new physical insight and encourage further research on the design of new 5d-based heterostructures or superlattices for the observation of the hidden topological quantum phenomena in strong spin-orbit coupled oxides.
In this paper we used Raman spectroscopy to investigate the optical properties of vanadium dioxide (VO2) thin films during the thermally induced insulating to metallic phase transition. We observed a significant difference in transition temperature in similar VO2 films grown on quartz and sapphire substrates: the film grown on quartz displayed the phase transition at a lower temperature (Tc=50C) compared a film grown on sapphire (Tc=68C). We also investigated differences in the detected Raman signal for different wavelengths and polarizations of the excitation laser. We found that for either substrate, a longer wavelength (in our case 785 nm) yielded the clearest VO2 Raman spectra, with no polarization dependence.
Ultrathin epitaxial films of EuNiO3 were grown on a series of substrates traversing highly compressive (- 2.4%) to highly tensile (2.5%) lattice mismatch. X-ray diffraction measurements showed the expected c-lattice parameter shift for compressive strain, but no detectable shift for tensilely strained substrates, while reciprocal space mapping confirmed the tensile strained film maintained epitaxial coherence. Transport measurements showed a successively (from tensile to compressive) lower resistance and a complete suppression of the metalinsulator transition at highly compressive lattice mismatch. Corroborating these findings, X-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements revealed a strong multiplet splitting in the tensile samples that progressively weakens with increasing compressive strain that, combined with cluster calculations, showed enhanced covalence between Ni-d and O-p orbitals leads to the metallic state.