No Arabic abstract
The celebrated Wiedemann-Franz (WF) law is believed to be robust in metals as long as interactions between electrons preserve their fermion-quasiparticle character. We study thermal transport and the fate of the WF law close to a continuous metal-insulator transition (MIT) in the Falicov-Kimball model (FKM) using cluster-dynamical mean-field theory (CDMFT). Surprisingly, as for electrical transport, we find robust and novel quantum critical scaling in thermal transport across the MIT. We unearth the deeper reasons for these novel findings in terms of (i) the specific structure of energy-current correlations for the FKM and (ii) the microscopic electronic processes which facil- itate energy transport while simultaneously blocking charge transport close to the MIT. However, within (C)DMFT, we also find that the WF law survives at T=0 in the incoherent metal right up to the MIT, even in absence of Landau quasiparticles.
A wide range of disordered materials, including disordered correlated systems, show Universal Dielectric Response (UDR), followed by a superlinear power-law increase in their optical responses over exceptionally broad frequency regimes. While extensively used in various contexts over the years, the microscopics underpinning UDR remains controversial. Here, we investigate the optical response of the simplest model of correlated fermions, Falicov-Kimball model (FKM), across the continuous metal-insulator transition (MIT) and analyze the associated quantum criticality in detail using cluster extension of dynamical mean field theory (CDMFT). Surprisingly, we find that UDR naturally emerges in the quantum critical region associated with the continuous MIT. We tie the emergence of these novel features to a many-body orthogonality catastrophe accompanying the onset of strongly correlated electronic glassy dynamics close to the MIT, providing a microscopic realization of Jonschers time-honored proposal as well as a rationale for similarities in optical responses between correlated electronic matter and canonical glass formers.
In contrast to the seminal weak localization prediction of a non-critical Hall constant ($R_{H}$) at the Anderson metal-insulator transition (MIT), $R_{H}$ in quite a few real disordered systems exhibits both, a strong $T$-dependence and critical scaling near their MIT. Here, we investigate these issues in detail within a non-perturbative strong localization regime using cluster-dynamical mean field theory (CDMFT). We uncover $(i)$ clear and unconventional quantum-critical scaling of the $gamma$-function, finding that $gamma(g_{xy})simeq$ log$(g_{xy})$ over a wide range spanning the continuous MIT, very similar to that seen for the longitudinal conductivity, $(ii)$ strongly $T$-dependent and clear quantum critical scaling in both transverse conductivity and $R_{H}$ at the MIT. We find that these surprising results are in comprehensive and very good accord with signatures of a novel kind of localization in disordered NbN near the MIT, providing substantial support for our strong localization view.
The thermal radiative near field transport between vanadium dioxide and silicon oxide at submicron distances is expected to exhibit a strong dependence on the state of vanadium dioxide which undergoes a metal-insulator transition near room temperature. We report the measurement of near field thermal transport between a heated silicon oxide micro-sphere and a vanadium dioxide thin film on a titanium oxide (rutile) substrate. The temperatures of the 15 nm vanadium dioxide thin film varied to be below and above the metal-insulator-transition, the sphere temperatures were varied in a range between 100 and 200 Celsius. The measurements were performed using a vacuum-based scanning thermal microscope with a cantilevered resistive thermal sensor. We observe a thermal conductivity per unit area between the sphere and the film with a distance dependence following a power law trend and a conductance contrast larger than 2 for the two different phase states of the film.
Metal-insulator transitions involve a mix of charge, spin, and structural degrees of freedom, and when strongly-correlated, can underlay the emergence of exotic quantum states. Mott insulators induced by the opening of a Coulomb gap are an important and well-recognized class of transitions, but insulators purely driven by spin correlations are much less common, as the reduced energy scale often invites competition from other degrees of freedom. Here we demonstrate a clean example of a spin-correlation-driven metal-insulator transition in the all-in-all-out pyrochlore antiferromagnet Cd2Os2O7, where the lattice symmetry is fully preserved by the antiferromagnetism. After the antisymmetric linear magnetoresistance from conductive, ferromagnetic domain walls is carefully removed experimentally, the Hall coefficient of the bulk reveals four Fermi surfaces, two of electron type and two of hole type, sequentially departing the Fermi level with decreasing temperature below the Neel temperature, T_N. Contrary to the common belief of concurrent magnetic and metal-insulator transitions in Cd2Os2O7, the charge gap of a continuous metal-insulator transition opens only at T~10K, well below T_N=227K. The insulating mechanism resolved by the Hall coefficient parallels the Slater picture, but without a folded Brillouin zone, and contrasts sharply with the behavior of Mott insulators and spin density waves, where the electronic gap opens above and at T_N, respectively.
We present results from an experimental study of the equilibrium and non-equilibrium transport properties of vanadium oxide nanobeams near the metal-insulator transition (MIT). Application of a large electric field in the insulating phase across the nanobeams produces an abrupt MIT and the individual roles of thermal and non-thermal effects in driving the transition are studied. Transport measurements at temperatures ($T$) far below the critical temperature ($T_c$) of MIT, in several nanoscale vanadium oxide devices, show that both $T$ and electric field play distinctly separate, but critical roles in inducing the MIT. Specifically, at $T << T_c$ electric field dominates the MIT through an avalanche-type process, whereas thermal effects become progressively critical as $T$ approaches $T_c$.