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Lattice softening effects at the Mott critical point of Cr-doped V$_2$O$_3$

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 Added by Pawel Wzietek
 Publication date 2010
  fields Physics
and research's language is English




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We have performed sound velocity measurements in (V$_{1-x}$Cr$_x$)$_2$O$_3$ in the vicinity of the critical point of the first order Mott transition line. The pressure sweeps at constant temperature reveal a large dip in the $c_{33}$ compression modulus, this dip sharpens as the critical point is approached. We do not observe signs of criticality on the shear modulus $c_{44}$ which is consistent with a transition governed by a scalar order parameter, in accordance with the DMFT description of the transition. However, the amplitude of the effect is an order of magnitude smaller than the one obtained from DMFT calculations for a single band Hubbard model. We analyze our results using a simple model with the electronic response function obtained from the scaling relations for the conductivity.



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We present an experimental and theoretical study exploring surface effects on the evolution of the metal-insulator transition in the model Mott-Hubbard compound Cr-doped V$_2$O$_3$. We find a microscopic domain formation that is clearly affected by the surface crystallographic orientation. Using scanning photoelectron microscopy and X-ray diffraction, we find that surface defects act as nucleation centers for the formation of domains at the temperature-induced isostructural transition and favor the formation of microscopic metallic regions. A density functional theory plus dynamical mean field theory study of different surface terminations shows that the surface reconstruction with excess vanadyl cations leads to doped, and hence more metallic surface states, explaining our experimental observations.
X-ray magnetic critical scattering measurements and specific heat measurements were performed on the perovskite iridate Sr$_3$Ir$_2$O$_7$. We find that the magnetic interactions close to the N{e}el temperature $T_N$ = 283.4(2) K are three-dimensional. This contrasts with previous studies which suggest two-dimensional behaviour like Sr$_2$IrO$_4$. Violation of the Harris criterion ($d u>2$) means that weak disorder becomes relevant. This leads a rounding of the antiferromagnetic phase transition at $T_N$, and modifies the critical exponents relative to the clean system. Specifically, we determine that the critical behaviour of Sr$_3$Ir$_2$O$_7$ is representative of the diluted 3D Ising universality class.
Unveiling the physics that governs the intertwining between the nanoscale self-organization and the dynamics of insulator-to-metal transitions (textit{IMT}) is key for controlling on demand the ultrafast switching in strongly correlated materials and nano-devices. A paradigmatic case is the textit{IMT} in V$_2$O$_3$, for which the mechanism that leads to the nucleation and growth of metallic nano-droplets out of the supposedly homogeneous Mott insulating phase is still a mystery. Here, we combine X-ray photoemission electron microscopy and ultrafast non-equilibrium optical spectroscopy to investigate the early stage dynamics of isolated metallic nano-droplets across the textit{IMT} in V$_2$O$_3$ thin films. Our experiments show that the low-temperature monoclinic antiferromagnetic insulating phase is characterized by the spontaneous formation of striped polydomains, with different lattice distortions. The insulating domain boundaries accommodate the birth of metallic nano-droplets, whose non-equilibrium expansion can be triggered by the photo-induced change of the 3$d$-orbital occupation. We address the relation between the spontaneous nanotexture of the Mott insulating phase in V$_2$O$_3$ and the timescale of the metallic seeds growth. We speculate that the photoinduced metallic growth can proceed along a non-thermal pathway in which the monoclinic lattice symmetry of the insulating phase is partially retained.
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