No Arabic abstract
We have analyzed spectral weight changes in the conduction and the valence band across insulator to metal transition (IMT) in the VO2 thin film using X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and resonant photoemission spectroscopy (PES). Through temperature dependent XAS and resonant PES measurements we unveil that spectral changes in the d$_{|}$ states (V 3$it{d_{x^2-y^2}}$ orbitals) are directly associated with temperature dependent electrical conductivity. Due to presence of the strong electron-electron correlations among the d$_{|}$ states, across IMT, these states are found to exhibit significant intensity variation compared to insignificant changes in the $pi^{ast}$ and the $sigma^{ast}$ states (which are O 2$it{p}$ hybridized V 3$it{d}$ $e_g^{pi}$ and $e_g^{sigma}$ states) in the conduction band. Experimentally obtained values of the correlation parameter (U$_{dd}$ $sim$ 5.1 eV, intra-atomic V 3$it{d}$ correlations) and crystal field splitting (10 Dq $sim$ 2.5 eV) values are used to simulate the V $it{L_{2,3}}$ edge XAS spectra and an agreement between simulated and experimental spectra also manifests strong correlations. These results unravel that the IMT observed in the VO2 thin film is the Mott-Hubbard insulator-metal transition.
The temperature ($T$) dependent metal-insulator transition (MIT) in VO$_2$ is investigated using bulk sensitive hard x-ray ($sim$ 8 keV) valence band, core level, and V 2$p-3d$ resonant photoemission spectroscopy (PES). The valence band and core level spectra are compared with full-multiplet cluster model calculations including a coherent screening channel. Across the MIT, V 3$d$ spectral weight transfer from the coherent ($d^1underbar{it {C}}$ final) states at Fermi level to the incoherent ($d^{0}+d^1underbar{it {L}}$ final) states, corresponding to the lower Hubbard band, lead to gap-formation. The spectral shape changes in V 1$s$ and V 2$p$ core levels as well as the valence band are nicely reproduced from a cluster model calculations, providing electronic structure parameters. Resonant-PES finds that the $d^1underbar{it{L}}$ states resonate across the V 2$p-3d$ threshold in addition to the $d^{0}$ and $d^1underbar{it {C}}$ states. The results support a Mott-Hubbard transition picture for the first order MIT in VO$_2$.
We present a theoretical investigation of the electronic structure of rutile (metallic) and M$_1$ and M$_2$ monoclinic (insulating) phases of VO$_2$ employing a fully self-consistent combination of density functional theory and embedded dynamical mean field theory calculations. We describe the electronic structure of the metallic and both insulating phases of VO$_2$, and propose a distinct mechanism for the gap opening. We show that Mott physics plays an essential role in all phases of VO$_2$: undimerized vanadium atoms undergo classical Mott transition through local moment formation (in the M$_2$ phase), while strong superexchange within V-dimers adds significant dynamic intersite correlations, which remove the singularity of self-energy for dimerized V-atoms. The resulting transition from rutile to dimerized M$_1$ phase is adiabatically connected to Peierls-like transition, but is better characterized as the Mott transition in the presence of strong intersite exchange. As a consequence of Mott physics, the gap in the dimerized M$_1$ phase is temperature dependent. The sole increase of electronic temperature collapses the gap, reminiscent of recent experiments.
VO2 is a strongly correlated material, which undergoes a reversible metal insulator transition (MIT) coupled to a structural phase transition upon heating (T= 67{deg} C). Since its discovery the nature of the insulating state has long been debated and different solid-state mechanisms have been proposed to explain its nature: Mott-Hubbard correlation, Peierls distortion or a combination of both. Moreover, still now there is a lack of consensus on the interplay between the different degrees of freedom: charge, lattice, orbital and how they contribute to the MIT. In this manuscript we will investigate across the MIT the orbital evolution induced by a tensile strain applied to thin VO2 films. The strained films allowed to study the interplay between orbital and lattice degrees of freedom and to clarify MIT properties.
We examine the metal-insulator transition in a half-filled Hubbard model of electrons with random and all-to-all hopping and exchange, and an on-site non-random repulsion, the Hubbard $U$. We argue that recent numerical results of Cha et al. (arXiv:2002.07181) can be understood in terms of a deconfined critical point between a disordered Fermi liquid and an insulating spin glass. We find a deconfined critical point in a previously proposed large $M$ theory which generalizes the SU(2) spin symmetry to SU($M$), and obtain exponents for the electron and spin correlators which agree with those of Cha et al. We also present a renormalization group analysis, and argue for the presence of an additional metallic spin glass phase at half-filling and small $U$.
Calculations employing the local density approximation combined with static and dynamical mean-field theories (LDA+U and LDA+DMFT) indicate that the metal-insulator transition observed at 32 GPa in paramagnetic LaMnO3 at room temperature is not a Mott-Hubbard transition, but is caused by orbital splitting of the majority-spin eg bands. For LaMnO3 to be insulating at pressures below 32 GPa, both on-site Coulomb repulsion and Jahn-Teller distortion are needed.