No Arabic abstract
We studied the in-plane dynamic and static charge conductivity of electron doped Sr2IrO4 using optical spectroscopy and DC transport measurements. The optical conductivity indicates that the pristine material is an indirect semiconductor with a direct Mott-gap of 0.55 eV. Upon substitution of 2% La per formula unit the Mott-gap is suppressed except in a small fraction of the material (15%) where the gap survives, and overall the material remains insulating. Instead of a zero energy mode (or Drude peak) we observe a soft collective mode (SCM) with a broad maximum at 40 meV. Doping to 10% increases the strength of the SCM, and a zero-energy mode occurs together with metallic DC conductivity. Further increase of the La substitution doesnt change the spectral weight integral up to 3 eV. It does however result in a transfer of the SCM spectral weight to the zero-energy mode, with a corresponding reduction of the DC resistivity for all temperatures from 4 to 300 K. The presence of a zero-energy mode signals that at least part of the Fermi surface remains ungapped at low temperatures, whereas the SCM appears to be caused by pinning a collective frozen state involving part of the doped electrons.
We have studied the evolution of magnetic and orbital excitations as a function of hole-doping in single crystal samples of Sr2Ir(1-x)Rh(x)O4 (0.07 < x < 0.42) using high resolution Ir L3-edge resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS). Within the antiferromagnetically ordered region of the phase diagram (x < 0.17) we observe highly dispersive magnon and spin-orbit exciton modes. Interestingly, both the magnon gap energy and the magnon bandwidth appear to increase as a function of doping, resulting in a hardening of the magnon mode with increasing hole doping. As a result, the observed spin dynamics of hole-doped iridates more closely resemble those of the electron-doped, rather than hole-doped, cuprates. Within the paramagnetic region of the phase diagram (0.17 < x < 0.42) the low-lying magnon mode disappears, and we find no evidence of spin fluctuations in this regime. In addition, we observe that the orbital excitations become essentially dispersionless in the paramagnetic phase, indicating that magnetic order plays a crucial role in the propagation of the spin-orbit exciton.
We have investigated possible spin and charge ordered states in 3d transition-metal oxides with small or negative charge-transfer energy, which can be regarded as self-doped Mott insulators, using Hartree-Fock calculations on d-p-type lattice models. It was found that an antiferromagnetic state with charge ordering in oxygen 2p orbitals is favored for relatively large charge-transfer energy and may be relevant for PrNiO$_3$ and NdNiO$_3$. On the other hand, an antiferromagnetic state with charge ordering in transition-metal 3$d$ orbitals tends to be stable for highly negative charge-transfer energy and can be stabilized by the breathing-type lattice distortion; this is probably realized in YNiO$_3$.
The motion of a single hole in a Mott antiferromagnet is investigated based on the t-J model. An exact expression of the energy spectrum is obtained, in which the irreparable phase string effect [Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 5102 (1996)] is explicitly present. By identifying the phase string effect with spin backflow, we point out that spin-charge separation must exist in such a system: the doped hole has to decay into a neutral spinon and a spinless holon, together with the phase string. We show that while the spinon remains coherent, the holon motion is deterred by the phase string, resulting in its localization in space. We calculate the electron spectral function which explains the line shape of the spectral function as well as the ``quasiparticle spectrum observed in angle-resolved photoemission experiments. Other analytic and numerical approaches are discussed based on the present framework.
Stoichiometric Sr2IrO4 is a ferromagnetic Jeff = 1/2 Mott insulator driven by strong spin-orbit coupling. Introduction of very dilute oxygen vacancies into single-crystal Sr2IrO4-delta with delta < 0.04 leads to significant changes in lattice parameters and an insulator-to-metal transition at TMI = 105 K. The highly anisotropic electrical resistivity of the low-temperature metallic state for delta ~ 0.04 exhibits anomalous properties characterized by non-Ohmic behavior and an abrupt current-induced transition in the resistivity at T* = 52 K, which separates two regimes of resisitive switching in the nonlinear I-V characteristics. The novel behavior illustrates an exotic ground state and constitutes a new paradigm for devices structures in which electrical resistivity is manipulated via low-level current densities ~ 10 mA/cm2 (compared to higher spin-torque currents ~ 107-108 A/cm2) or magnetic inductions ~ 0.1-1.0 T.
Metamagnetism in antiferromagnets exhibits distinct critical behaviors and dynamics when invoking spin reversal and rotation. Here we show a 0.05% anisotropic strain suffices to in-situ modulate the metamagnetic critical field of the Mott insulator Sr2IrO4 by over 50%, enabling electrical switching of the transition. Resonant x-ray scattering and model simulation reveal that the transition is completely tuned from the spin-flop to spin-flip type as the strain introduces C4-symmetry-breaking magnetic anisotropy. Simultaneous transport study indicates the metamagnetic responses are reflected in the large elasto- and magnetoconductance, highlighting the active charge degree of freedom in the spin-orbit-coupled Mott state and its potential for spin-electronics.