Superconductor-Metal-Insulator transition in two dimensional Ta thin Films

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Sun-Gyu; Kim, Eunseong

2013-03-01

Superconductor-insulator transition has been induced by tuning film thickness or magnetic field. Recent electrical transport measurements of MoGe, Bi, Ta thin films revealed an interesting intermediate metallic phase which intervened superconducting and insulating phases at certain range of magnetic field. Especially, Ta thin films show the characteristic IV behavior at each phase and the disorder tuned intermediate metallic phase [Y. Li, C. L. Vicente, and J. Yoon, Physical Review B 81, 020505 (2010)]. This unexpected metallic phase can be interpreted as a consequence of vortex motion or contribution of fermionic quasiparticles. In this presentation, we report the scaling behavior during the transitions in Ta thin film as well as the transport measurements in various phases. Critical exponents v and z are obtained in samples with wide ranges of disorder. These results reveal new universality class appears when disorder exceeds a critical value. Dynamical exponent z of Superconducting sample is found to be 1, which is consistent with theoretical prediction of unity. z in a metallic sample is suddenly increased to be approximately 2.5. This critical exponent is much larger than the value found in other system and theoretical prediction. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support by the National Research Foundation of Korea through the Creative Research Initiatives.

Local distortion induced metal-to-insulator phase transition in PrRu4P12

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cao, D.; Heffner, R.H.; Jeong, I.-K.; Bauer, E.D.; Bridges, F.; Yuhasz, W.M.; Maple, M.B.

2005-01-01

Extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) experiments have been carried out on PrRu 4 P 12 and PrOs 4 P 12 to study the metal-to-insulator (MI) phase transition in PrRu 4 P 12 . No Pr displacement was observed across the MI transition temperature from the EXAFS data. Instead, our EXAFS data clearly show that a Ru displacement is associated with this MI transition. The very high Debye temperature for the Ru-P bond (Θ D =690 K) suggests that a slight rotation/displacement of relatively rigid RuP 6 octahedra leads to this small Ru displacement, which accompanies the MI transition at 62 K in PrRu 4 P 12

Predicting a new phase (T'') of two-dimensional transition metal di-chalcogenides and strain-controlled topological phase transition

Science.gov (United States)

Ma, Fengxian; Gao, Guoping; Jiao, Yalong; Gu, Yuantong; Bilic, Ante; Zhang, Haijun; Chen, Zhongfang; Du, Aijun

2016-02-01

Single layered transition metal dichalcogenides have attracted tremendous research interest due to their structural phase diversities. By using a global optimization approach, we have discovered a new phase of transition metal dichalcogenides (labelled as T''), which is confirmed to be energetically, dynamically and kinetically stable by our first-principles calculations. The new T'' MoS2 phase exhibits an intrinsic quantum spin Hall (QSH) effect with a nontrivial gap as large as 0.42 eV, suggesting that a two-dimensional (2D) topological insulator can be achieved at room temperature. Most interestingly, there is a topological phase transition simply driven by a small tensile strain of up to 2%. Furthermore, all the known MX2 (M = Mo or W; X = S, Se or Te) monolayers in the new T'' phase unambiguously display similar band topologies and strain controlled topological phase transitions. Our findings greatly enrich the 2D families of transition metal dichalcogenides and offer a feasible way to control the electronic states of 2D topological insulators for the fabrication of high-speed spintronics devices.Single layered transition metal dichalcogenides have attracted tremendous research interest due to their structural phase diversities. By using a global optimization approach, we have discovered a new phase of transition metal dichalcogenides (labelled as T''), which is confirmed to be energetically, dynamically and kinetically stable by our first-principles calculations. The new T'' MoS2 phase exhibits an intrinsic quantum spin Hall (QSH) effect with a nontrivial gap as large as 0.42 eV, suggesting that a two-dimensional (2D) topological insulator can be achieved at room temperature. Most interestingly, there is a topological phase transition simply driven by a small tensile strain of up to 2%. Furthermore, all the known MX2 (M = Mo or W; X = S, Se or Te) monolayers in the new T'' phase unambiguously display similar band topologies and strain controlled topological

Metal-Insulator Phase Transition in thin VO2 films: A Look from the Far Infrared Side

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jepsen, Peter Uhd; Fischer, B. M.; Thoman, A.

Vanadium dioxide (VO2) displays a well-known metal-insulator (MI) transition at atemperature of 68oC. The MI transition in VO2 has been studied extensively by a widerange of optical, electrical, structural, and magnetic measurements. In spite of this there isstill some controversy about the nature...... temperature hysteresis of the far-infrared transmission through thethin film with temperature. Interestingly the temperature-dependent transmissionamplitude shows a markedly different switching temperature than the transmission phase.This effect has not been observed before, and is very important...

Electroforming and Switching in Oxides of Transition Metals: The Role of Metal Insulator Transition in the Switching Mechanism

Science.gov (United States)

Chudnovskii, F. A.; Odynets, L. L.; Pergament, A. L.; Stefanovich, G. B.

1996-02-01

Electroforming and switching effects in sandwich structures based on anodic films of transition metal oxides (V, Nb, Ti, Fe, Ta, W, Zr, Hf, Mo) have been studied. After being electroformed, some materials exhibited current-controlled negative resistance with S-shapedV-Icharacteristics. For V, Fe, Ti, and Nb oxides, the temperature dependences of the threshold voltage have been measured. As the temperature increased,Vthdecreased to zero at a critical temperatureT0, which depended on the film material. Comparison of theT0values with the temperatures of metal-insulator phase transition for some compounds (Tt= 120 K for Fe3O4, 340 K for VO2, ∼500 K for Ti2O3, and 1070 K for NbO2) showed that switching was related to the transition in the applied electric field. Channels consisting of the above-mentioned lower oxides were formed in the initial anodic films during the electroforming. The possibility of formation of these oxides with a metal-insulator transition was confirmed by thermodynamic calculations.

Numerical simulations of quantum many-body systems with applications to superfluid-insulator and metal-insulator transitions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Niyaz, P.

1993-01-01

Quantum Monte Carlo techniques were used to study two quantum many-body systems, the one-dimensional extended boson-Hubbard Hamiltonian, a model of superfluid-insulator quantum phase transitions, and the two-dimensional Holstein Model, a model for electron-phonon interactions. For the extended boson-Hubbard model, the authors studied the ground state properties at commensurate filling (density = 1) and half-integer filling (density = 1/2). At commensurate filling, the system has two possible insulating phases for strong coupling. If the on-site repulsion dominates, the system freezes into an insulating phase where each site is singly occupied. If the intersite repulsion dominates, doubly occupied and empty sites alternate. At weak coupling, the system becomes a superfluid. The authors investigated the order of phase transitions between these different phases. At half-integer filling, the authors found one strong coupling insulating phase, where singly occupied and empty sites alternate, and a weak coupling superfluid phase. The authors also investigated the possibility of a supersolid phase and found no clear evidence of such a new phase. For the electron-phonon (Holstein) model, the authors focused on the finite temperature phase transition from a metallic state to an insulating charge density wave (CDW) state as the temperature is lowered. The authors present the first calculation of the spectral density from Monte Carlo data for this system. The authors also investigated the formation of a CDW state as a function of various parameters characterizing the electron-phonon interactions. Using these numerical results as benchmarks, the authors then investigated different levels of Migdal approximations. The authors found the solutions of a set of gapped Migdal-Eliashberg equations agreed qualitatively with the Monte Carlo results

Charge disproportionation in RNiO3 at the metal-insulator transition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Alonso, J.A.; Martinez-Lope, M.J.; Casais, M.T.; Garcia-Munoz, J.L.; Fernandez-Diaz, M.T.; Aranda, M.A.G.

1999-01-01

Complete text of publication follows. Neutron and synchrotron diffraction data provide the first observation of changes in the crystal symmetry at the metal-insulator (MI) transition in RNiO 3 perovskites [1]. At high temperatures, YNiO 3 is orthorhombic and metallic but below T MI = 582 K it changes to a monoclinic insulator. The monoclinic symmetry is due to a partial 2 Ni 3+ → Ni 3+δ + Ni 3-δ charge disproportionation associated to the MI transition. In the insulating state the presence of two NiO 6 octahedra is reported with, respectively, expanded (Ni1) and contracted (Ni2) Ni-O bonds, that alternated along the three directions of the crystal. Corroborating the charge disproportion, unequal moments are found at Ni1 and Ni2 octahedra in the low temperature monoclinic phase. (author) J.A. Alonso et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. in press

Electronic Structure Evolution across the Peierls Metal-Insulator Transition in a Correlated Ferromagnet

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P. A. Bhobe

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Transition metal compounds often undergo spin-charge-orbital ordering due to strong electron-electron correlations. In contrast, low-dimensional materials can exhibit a Peierls transition arising from low-energy electron-phonon-coupling-induced structural instabilities. We study the electronic structure of the tunnel framework compound K_{2}Cr_{8}O_{16}, which exhibits a temperature-dependent (T-dependent paramagnetic-to-ferromagnetic-metal transition at T_{C}=180  K and transforms into a ferromagnetic insulator below T_{MI}=95  K. We observe clear T-dependent dynamic valence (charge fluctuations from above T_{C} to T_{MI}, which effectively get pinned to an average nominal valence of Cr^{+3.75} (Cr^{4+}∶Cr^{3+} states in a 3∶1 ratio in the ferromagnetic-insulating phase. High-resolution laser photoemission shows a T-dependent BCS-type energy gap, with 2G(0∼3.5(k_{B}T_{MI}∼35  meV. First-principles band-structure calculations, using the experimentally estimated on-site Coulomb energy of U∼4  eV, establish the necessity of strong correlations and finite structural distortions for driving the metal-insulator transition. In spite of the strong correlations, the nonintegral occupancy (2.25 d-electrons/Cr and the half-metallic ferromagnetism in the t_{2g} up-spin band favor a low-energy Peierls metal-insulator transition.

Magnetic states, correlation effects and metal-insulator transition in FCC lattice

Science.gov (United States)

Timirgazin, M. A.; Igoshev, P. A.; Arzhnikov, A. K.; Irkhin, V. Yu

2016-12-01

The ground-state magnetic phase diagram (including collinear and spiral states) of the single-band Hubbard model for the face-centered cubic lattice and related metal-insulator transition (MIT) are investigated within the slave-boson approach by Kotliar and Ruckenstein. The correlation-induced electron spectrum narrowing and a comparison with a generalized Hartree-Fock approximation allow one to estimate the strength of correlation effects. This, as well as the MIT scenario, depends dramatically on the ratio of the next-nearest and nearest electron hopping integrals {{t}\\prime}/t . In contrast with metallic state, possessing substantial band narrowing, insulator one is only weakly correlated. The magnetic (Slater) scenario of MIT is found to be superior over the Mott one. Unlike simple and body-centered cubic lattices, MIT is the first order transition (discontinuous) for most {{t}\\prime}/t . The insulator state is type-II or type-III antiferromagnet, and the metallic state is spin-spiral, collinear antiferromagnet or paramagnet depending on {{t}\\prime}/t . The picture of magnetic ordering is compared with that in the standard localized-electron (Heisenberg) model.

The electronic structure and metal-insulator transitions in vanadium oxides

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mossanek, Rodrigo Jose Ochekoski

2010-01-01

The electronic structure and metal-insulator transitions in vanadium oxides (SrVO_3, CaVO_3, LaVO_3 and YVO_3) are studied here. The purpose is to show a new interpretation to the spectra which is coherent with the changes across the metal-insulator transition. The main experimental techniques are the X-ray photoemission (PES) and X-ray absorption (XAS) spectroscopies. The spectra are interpreted with cluster model, band structure and atomic multiplet calculations. The presence of charge-transfer satellites in the core-level PES spectra showed that these vanadium oxides cannot be classified in the Mott-Hubbard regime. Further, the valence band and core-level spectra presented a similar behavior across the metal insulator transition. In fact, the structures in the spectra and their changes are determined by the different screening channels present in the metallic or insulating phases. The calculated spectral weight showed that the coherent fluctuations dominate the spectra at the Fermi level and give the metallic character to the SrVO_3 and CaVO_3 compounds. The vanishing of this charge fluctuation and the replacement by the Mott-Hubbard screening in the LaVO_3 and YVO_3 systems is ultimately responsible for the opening of a band gap and the insulating character. Further, the correlation effects are, indeed, important to the occupied electronic structure (coherent and incoherent peaks). On the other hand, the unoccupied electronic structure is dominated by exchange and crystal field effects (t2g and eg sub-bands of majority and minority spins). The optical conductivity spectrum was obtained by convoluting the removal and addition states. It showed that the oxygen states, as well as the crystal field and exchange effects are necessary to correctly compare and interpret the experimental results. Further, a correlation at the charge-transfer region of the core-level and valence band optical spectra was observed, which could be extended to other transition metal oxides

On holographic disorder-driven metal-insulator transitions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Baggioli, Matteo; Pujolàs, Oriol [Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona,The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology,Campus UAB, 08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona) (Spain)

2017-01-10

We give a minimal holographic model of a disorder-driven metal-insulator transition. It consists in a CFT with a charge sector and a translation-breaking sector that interact in the most generic way allowed by the symmetries and by dynamical consistency. In the gravity dual, it reduces to a Massive Gravity-Maxwell model with a new direct coupling between the gauge field and the metric that is allowed when gravity is massive. We show that the effect of this coupling is to decrease the DC electrical conductivity generically. This gives a nontrivial check that holographic massive gravity can be consistently interpreted as disorder from the CFT perspective. The suppression of the conductivity happens to such an extent that it does not obey any lower bound and it can be very small in the insulating phase. In some cases, the large disorder limit produces gradient instabilities that hint at the formation of modulated phases.

On holographic disorder-driven metal-insulator transitions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baggioli, Matteo; Pujolàs, Oriol

2017-01-01

We give a minimal holographic model of a disorder-driven metal-insulator transition. It consists in a CFT with a charge sector and a translation-breaking sector that interact in the most generic way allowed by the symmetries and by dynamical consistency. In the gravity dual, it reduces to a Massive Gravity-Maxwell model with a new direct coupling between the gauge field and the metric that is allowed when gravity is massive. We show that the effect of this coupling is to decrease the DC electrical conductivity generically. This gives a nontrivial check that holographic massive gravity can be consistently interpreted as disorder from the CFT perspective. The suppression of the conductivity happens to such an extent that it does not obey any lower bound and it can be very small in the insulating phase. In some cases, the large disorder limit produces gradient instabilities that hint at the formation of modulated phases.

First- and second-order metal-insulator phase transitions and topological aspects of a Hubbard-Rashba system

Science.gov (United States)

Marcelino, Edgar

2017-05-01

This paper considers a model consisting of a kinetic term, Rashba spin-orbit coupling and short-range Coulomb interaction at zero temperature. The Coulomb interaction is decoupled by a mean-field approximation in the spin channel using field theory methods. The results feature a first-order phase transition for any finite value of the chemical potential and quantum criticality for vanishing chemical potential. The Hall conductivity is also computed using the Kubo formula in a mean-field effective Hamiltonian. In the limit of infinite mass the kinetic term vanishes and all the phase transitions are of second order; in this case the spontaneous symmetry-breaking mechanism adds a ferromagnetic metallic phase to the system and features a zero-temperature quantization of the Hall conductivity in the insulating one.

Electric field-triggered metal-insulator transition resistive switching of bilayered multiphasic VOx

Science.gov (United States)

Won, Seokjae; Lee, Sang Yeon; Hwang, Jungyeon; Park, Jucheol; Seo, Hyungtak

2018-01-01

Electric field-triggered Mott transition of VO2 for next-generation memory devices with sharp and fast resistance-switching response is considered to be ideal but the formation of single-phase VO2 by common deposition techniques is very challenging. Here, VOx films with a VO2-dominant phase for a Mott transition-based metal-insulator transition (MIT) switching device were successfully fabricated by the combined process of RF magnetron sputtering of V metal and subsequent O2 annealing to form. By performing various material characterizations, including scanning transmission electron microscopy-electron energy loss spectroscopy, the film is determined to have a bilayer structure consisting of a VO2-rich bottom layer acting as the Mott transition switching layer and a V2O5/V2O3 mixed top layer acting as a control layer that suppresses any stray leakage current and improves cyclic performance. This bilayer structure enables excellent electric field-triggered Mott transition-based resistive switching of Pt-VOx-Pt metal-insulator-metal devices with a set/reset current ratio reaching 200, set/reset voltage of less than 2.5 V, and very stable DC cyclic switching upto 120 cycles with a great set/reset current and voltage distribution less than 5% of standard deviation at room temperature, which are specifications applicable for neuromorphic or memory device applications. [Figure not available: see fulltext.

Metal-Insulator Transition Driven by Vacancy Ordering in GeSbTe Phase Change Materials.

Science.gov (United States)

Bragaglia, Valeria; Arciprete, Fabrizio; Zhang, Wei; Mio, Antonio Massimiliano; Zallo, Eugenio; Perumal, Karthick; Giussani, Alessandro; Cecchi, Stefano; Boschker, Jos Emiel; Riechert, Henning; Privitera, Stefania; Rimini, Emanuele; Mazzarello, Riccardo; Calarco, Raffaella

2016-04-01

Phase Change Materials (PCMs) are unique compounds employed in non-volatile random access memory thanks to the rapid and reversible transformation between the amorphous and crystalline state that display large differences in electrical and optical properties. In addition to the amorphous-to-crystalline transition, experimental results on polycrystalline GeSbTe alloys (GST) films evidenced a Metal-Insulator Transition (MIT) attributed to disorder in the crystalline phase. Here we report on a fundamental advance in the fabrication of GST with out-of-plane stacking of ordered vacancy layers by means of three distinct methods: Molecular Beam Epitaxy, thermal annealing and application of femtosecond laser pulses. We assess the degree of vacancy ordering and explicitly correlate it with the MIT. We further tune the ordering in a controlled fashion attaining a large range of resistivity. Employing ordered GST might allow the realization of cells with larger programming windows.

Metal - Insulator Transition Driven by Vacancy Ordering in GeSbTe Phase Change Materials

Science.gov (United States)

Bragaglia, Valeria; Arciprete, Fabrizio; Zhang, Wei; Mio, Antonio Massimiliano; Zallo, Eugenio; Perumal, Karthick; Giussani, Alessandro; Cecchi, Stefano; Boschker, Jos Emiel; Riechert, Henning; Privitera, Stefania; Rimini, Emanuele; Mazzarello, Riccardo; Calarco, Raffaella

2016-04-01

Phase Change Materials (PCMs) are unique compounds employed in non-volatile random access memory thanks to the rapid and reversible transformation between the amorphous and crystalline state that display large differences in electrical and optical properties. In addition to the amorphous-to-crystalline transition, experimental results on polycrystalline GeSbTe alloys (GST) films evidenced a Metal-Insulator Transition (MIT) attributed to disorder in the crystalline phase. Here we report on a fundamental advance in the fabrication of GST with out-of-plane stacking of ordered vacancy layers by means of three distinct methods: Molecular Beam Epitaxy, thermal annealing and application of femtosecond laser pulses. We assess the degree of vacancy ordering and explicitly correlate it with the MIT. We further tune the ordering in a controlled fashion attaining a large range of resistivity. Employing ordered GST might allow the realization of cells with larger programming windows.

Tunable metal-insulator transitions in bilayer graphene by thermal annealing

OpenAIRE

Kalon, Gopinadhan; Shin, Young Jun; Yang, Hyunsoo

2012-01-01

Tunable and highly reproducible metal-insulator transitions have been observed in bilayer graphene upon thermal annealing at 400 K under high vacuum conditions. Before annealing, the sample is metallic in the whole temperature regime of study. Upon annealing, the conductivity changes from metallic to that of an insulator and the transition temperature is a function of annealing time. The pristine metallic state can be reinstated by exposing to air thereby inducing changes in the electronic pr...

Imaging Nanometer Phase Coexistence at Defects During the Insulator-Metal Phase Transformation in VO2 Thin Films by Resonant Soft X-ray Holography.

Science.gov (United States)

Vidas, Luciana; Günther, Christian M; Miller, Timothy A; Pfau, Bastian; Perez-Salinas, Daniel; Martínez, Elías; Schneider, Michael; Gührs, Erik; Gargiani, Pierluigi; Valvidares, Manuel; Marvel, Robert E; Hallman, Kent A; Haglund, Richard F; Eisebitt, Stefan; Wall, Simon

2018-05-18

We use resonant soft X-ray holography to image the insulator-metal phase transition in vanadium dioxide with element and polarization specificity and nanometer spatial resolution. We observe that nanoscale inhomogeneity in the film results in spatial-dependent transition pathways between the insulating and metallic states. Additional nanoscale phases form in the vicinity of defects which are not apparent in the initial or final states of the system, which would be missed in area-integrated X-ray absorption measurements. These intermediate phases are vital to understand the phase transition in VO 2 , and our results demonstrate how resonant imaging can be used to understand the electronic properties of phase-separated correlated materials obtained by X-ray absorption.

P-wave holographic superconductor/insulator phase transitions affected by dark matter sector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rogatko, Marek; Wysokinski, Karol I.

2016-01-01

The holographic approach to building the p-wave superconductors results in three different models: the Maxwell-vector, the SU(2) Yang-Mills and the helical. In the probe limit approximation, we analytically examine the properties of the first two models in the theory with dark matter sector. It turns out that the effect of dark matter on the Maxwell-vector p-wave model is the same as on the s-wave superconductor studied earlier. For the non-Abelian model we study the phase transitions between p-wave holographic insulator/superconductor and metal/superconductor. Studies of marginally stable modes in the theory under consideration allow us to determine features of p-wave holographic droplet in a constant magnetic field. The dependence of the superconducting transition temperature on the coupling constant α to the dark matter sector is affected by the dark matter density ρ_D. For ρ_D>ρ the transition temperature is a decreasing function of α. The critical chemical potential μ_c for the quantum phase transition between insulator and metal depends on the chemical potential of dark matter μ_D and for μ_D=0 is a decreasing function of α.

Metal-insulator transition induced in CaVO3 thin films

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gu Man; Laverock, Jude; Chen, Bo; Smith, Kevin E.; Wolf, Stuart A.; Lu Jiwei

2013-01-01

Stoichiometric CaVO 3 (CVO) thin films of various thicknesses were grown on single crystal SrTiO 3 (STO) (001) substrates using a pulsed electron-beam deposition technique. The CVO films were capped with a 2.5 nm STO layer. We observed a temperature driven metal-insulator transition (MIT) in CVO films with thicknesses below 4 nm that was not observed in either thick CVO films or STO films. The emergence of this MIT can be attributed to the reduction in effective bandwidth due to a crossover from a three-dimensional metal to a two-dimensional insulator. The insulating phase was only induced with a drive current below 0.1 μA. X-ray absorption measurements indicated different electronic structures for thick and very thin films of CVO. Compared with the thick film (∼60 nm), thin films of CVO (2–4 nm) were more two-dimensional with the V charge state closer to V 4+ .

Reentrant Metal-Insulator Transitions in Silicon -

Science.gov (United States)

Campbell, John William M.

This thesis describes a study of reentrant metal -insulator transitions observed in the inversion layer of extremely high mobility Si-MOSFETs. Magneto-transport measurements were carried out in the temperature range 20mK-4.2 K in a ^3He/^4 He dilution refrigerator which was surrounded by a 15 Tesla superconducting magnet. Below a melting temperature (T_{M}~500 mK) and a critical electron density (n_{s }~9times10^{10} cm^{-2}), the Shubnikov -de Haas oscillations in the diagonal resistivity enormous maximum values at the half filled Landau levels while maintaining deep minima corresponding to the quantum Hall effect at filled Landau levels. At even lower electron densities the insulating regions began to spread and eventually a metal-insulator transition could be induced at zero magnetic field. The measurement of extremely large resistances in the milliKelvin temperature range required the use of very low currents (typically in the 10^ {-12} A range) and in certain measurements minimizing the noise was also a consideration. The improvements achieved in these areas through the use of shielding, optical decouplers and battery operated instruments are described. The transport signatures of the insulating state are considered in terms of two basic mechanisms: single particle localization with transport by variable range hopping and the formation of a collective state such as a pinned Wigner crystal or electron solid with transport through the motion of bound dislocation pairs. The experimental data is best described by the latter model. Thus the two dimensional electron system in these high mobility Si-MOSFETs provides the first and only experimental demonstration to date of the formation of an electron solid at zero and low magnetic fields in the quantum limit where the Coulomb interaction energy dominates over the zero point oscillation energy. The role of disorder in favouring either single particle localization or the formation of a Wigner crystal is explored by

The control of magnetism near metal-to-insulator transitions of VO2 nano-belts

CSIR Research Space (South Africa)

Nkosi, SS

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The magnetic properties of paramagnetic/weakly ferromagnetic films are strongly affected by the proximity to materials that undergo a metal to insulator phase transition. Here, we show that under the deposition conditions associated with structural...

New Light on the Metal-Insulator Transition in VO₂: A Terahertz Perspective

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jepsen, Peter Uhd; Fischer, Bernd M.; Thoman, Andreas

2005-01-01

We investigate the metal-insulator (MI) transition in vanadium dioxide (VO2), thin films with Terahertz Time-Domains Spectroscopy (THz-TDS). The capability of detecting both amplitude and phase of the transmission characteristics as the phase of the transmitted THz signal switches at a markedly...

First-order metal-insulator transitions in the extended Hubbard model due to self-consistent screening of the effective interaction

Science.gov (United States)

Schüler, M.; van Loon, E. G. C. P.; Katsnelson, M. I.; Wehling, T. O.

2018-04-01

While the Hubbard model is the standard model to study Mott metal-insulator transitions, it is still unclear to what extent it can describe metal-insulator transitions in real solids, where nonlocal Coulomb interactions are always present. By using a variational principle, we clarify this issue for short- and long-range nonlocal Coulomb interactions for half-filled systems on bipartite lattices. We find that repulsive nonlocal interactions generally stabilize the Fermi-liquid regime. The metal-insulator phase boundary is shifted to larger interaction strengths to leading order linearly with nonlocal interactions. Importantly, nonlocal interactions can raise the order of the metal-insulator transition. We present a detailed analysis of how the dimension and geometry of the lattice as well as the temperature determine the critical nonlocal interaction leading to a first-order transition: for systems in more than two dimensions with nonzero density of states at the Fermi energy the critical nonlocal interaction is arbitrarily small; otherwise, it is finite.

Holographic metal-insulator transition in higher derivative gravity

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ling, Yi, E-mail: lingy@ihep.ac.cn [Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049 (China); Shanghai Key Laboratory of High Temperature Superconductors, Shanghai, 200444 (China); Liu, Peng, E-mail: liup51@ihep.ac.cn [Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049 (China); Wu, Jian-Pin, E-mail: jianpinwu@mail.bnu.edu.cn [Institute of Gravitation and Cosmology, Department of Physics, School of Mathematics and Physics, Bohai University, Jinzhou 121013 (China); Shanghai Key Laboratory of High Temperature Superconductors, Shanghai, 200444 (China); Zhou, Zhenhua, E-mail: zhouzh@ihep.ac.cn [Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049 (China)

2017-03-10

We introduce a Weyl term into the Einstein–Maxwell-Axion theory in four dimensional spacetime. Up to the first order of the Weyl coupling parameter γ, we construct charged black brane solutions without translational invariance in a perturbative manner. Among all the holographic frameworks involving higher derivative gravity, we are the first to obtain metal-insulator transitions (MIT) when varying the system parameters at zero temperature. Furthermore, we study the holographic entanglement entropy (HEE) of strip geometry in this model and find that the second order derivative of HEE with respect to the axion parameter exhibits maximization behavior near quantum critical points (QCPs) of MIT. It testifies the conjecture in that HEE itself or its derivatives can be used to diagnose quantum phase transition (QPT).

Metal-insulator phase transition in a VO2 thin film observed with terahertz spectroscopy

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jepsen, Peter Uhd; Fischer, Bernd M.; Thoman, Andreas

2006-01-01

We investigate the dielectric properties of a thin VO2 film in the terahertz frequency range in the vicinity of the semiconductor-metal phase transition. Phase-sensitive broadband spectroscopy in the frequency region below the phonon bands of VO2 gives insight into the conductive properties...... of the film during the phase transition. We compare our experimental data with models proposed for the evolution of the phase transition. The experimental data show that the phase transition occurs via the gradual growth of metallic domains in the film, and that the dielectric properties of the film...

Metal-insulator transition induced in CaVO{sub 3} thin films

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gu Man [Department of Physics, University of Virginia, 382 McCormick Rd., Charlottesville, Virginia 22904 (United States); Laverock, Jude; Chen, Bo; Smith, Kevin E. [Department of Physics, Boston University, 590 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215 (United States); Wolf, Stuart A. [Department of Physics, University of Virginia, 382 McCormick Rd., Charlottesville, Virginia 22904 (United States); Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Virginia, 395 McCormick Rd., Charlottesville, Virginia 22904 (United States); Lu Jiwei [Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Virginia, 395 McCormick Rd., Charlottesville, Virginia 22904 (United States)

2013-04-07

Stoichiometric CaVO{sub 3} (CVO) thin films of various thicknesses were grown on single crystal SrTiO{sub 3} (STO) (001) substrates using a pulsed electron-beam deposition technique. The CVO films were capped with a 2.5 nm STO layer. We observed a temperature driven metal-insulator transition (MIT) in CVO films with thicknesses below 4 nm that was not observed in either thick CVO films or STO films. The emergence of this MIT can be attributed to the reduction in effective bandwidth due to a crossover from a three-dimensional metal to a two-dimensional insulator. The insulating phase was only induced with a drive current below 0.1 {mu}A. X-ray absorption measurements indicated different electronic structures for thick and very thin films of CVO. Compared with the thick film ({approx}60 nm), thin films of CVO (2-4 nm) were more two-dimensional with the V charge state closer to V{sup 4+}.

Electric-field driven insulator-metal transition and tunable magnetoresistance in ZnO thin film

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Le; Chen, Shanshan; Chen, Xiangyang; Ye, Zhizhen; Zhu, Liping

2018-04-01

Electrical control of the multistate phase in semiconductors offers the promise of nonvolatile functionality in the future semiconductor spintronics. Here, by applying an external electric field, we have observed a gate-induced insulator-metal transition (MIT) with the temperature dependence of resistivity in ZnO thin films. Due to a high-density carrier accumulation, we have shown the ability to inverse change magnetoresistance in ZnO by ionic liquid gating from 10% to -2.5%. The evolution of photoluminescence under gate voltage was also consistent with the MIT, which is due to the reduction of dislocation. Our in-situ gate-controlled photoluminescence, insulator-metal transition, and the conversion of magnetoresistance open up opportunities in searching for quantum materials and ZnO based photoelectric devices.

First principles description of the insulator-metal transition in europium monoxide

KAUST Repository

Wang, Hao

2012-02-01

Europium monoxide, EuO, is a ferromagnetic insulator. Its electronic structure under pressure and doping is investigated by means of density functional theory. We employ spin polarized electronic structure calculations including onsite electron-electron interaction for the localized Eu 4f and 5d electrons. Our results show that under pressure the ferromagnetism is stable, both for hydrostatic and uniaxial pressure, while the compound undergoes an insulator-metal transition. The insulator-metal transition in O deficient and Gd doped EuO is reproduced for an impurity concentration of 6.25%. A 10 monolayer thick EuO(1 0 0) thin film is predicted to be an insulator with a narrow band gap of 0.08 eV. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Universal Quantum Criticality in the Metal-Insulator Transition of Two-Dimensional Interacting Dirac Electrons

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yuichi Otsuka

2016-03-01

Full Text Available The metal-insulator transition has been a subject of intense research since Mott first proposed that the metallic behavior of interacting electrons could turn to an insulating one as electron correlations increase. Here, we consider electrons with massless Dirac-like dispersion in two spatial dimensions, described by the Hubbard models on two geometrically different lattices, and perform numerically exact calculations on unprecedentedly large systems that, combined with a careful finite-size scaling analysis, allow us to explore the quantum critical behavior in the vicinity of the interaction-driven metal-insulator transition. Thereby, we find that the transition is continuous, and we determine the quantum criticality for the corresponding universality class, which is described in the continuous limit by the Gross-Neveu model, a model extensively studied in quantum field theory. Furthermore, we discuss a fluctuation-driven scenario for the metal-insulator transition in the interacting Dirac electrons: The metal-insulator transition is triggered only by the vanishing of the quasiparticle weight, not by the Dirac Fermi velocity, which instead remains finite near the transition. This important feature cannot be captured by a simple mean-field or Gutzwiller-type approximate picture but is rather consistent with the low-energy behavior of the Gross-Neveu model.

Quantum phase transitions of strongly correlated electron systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Imada, Masatoshi

1998-01-01

Interacting electrons in solids undergo various quantum phase transitions driven by quantum fluctuations. The quantum transitions take place at zero temperature by changing a parameter to control quantum fluctuations rather than thermal fluctuations. In contrast to classical phase transitions driven by thermal fluctuations, the quantum transitions have many different features where quantum dynamics introduces a source of intrinsic fluctuations tightly connected with spatial correlations and they have been a subject of recent intensive studies as we see below. Interacting electron systems cannot be fully understood without deep analyses of the quantum phase transitions themselves, because they are widely seen and play essential roles in many phenomena. Typical and important examples of the quantum phase transitions include metal-insulator transitions, (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) metal-superconductor transitions, superconductor-insulator transitions, magnetic transitions to antiferromagnetic or ferromagnetic phases in metals as well as in Mott insulators, and charge ordering transitions. Here, we focus on three different types of transitions

Metal-insulator transition in one-dimensional lattices with chaotic energy sequences

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pinto, R.A.; Rodriguez, M.; Gonzalez, J.A.; Medina, E.

2005-01-01

We study electronic transport through a one-dimensional array of sites by using a tight binding Hamiltonian, whose site-energies are drawn from a chaotic sequence. The correlation degree between these energies is controlled by a parameter regulating the dynamic Lyapunov exponent measuring the degree of chaos. We observe the effect of chaotic sequences on the localization length, conductance, conductance distribution and wave function, finding evidence of a metal-insulator transition (MIT) at a critical degree of chaos. The one-dimensional metallic phase is characterized by a Gaussian conductance distribution and exhibits a peculiar non-selfaveraging

Metal-insulator transition in one-dimensional lattices with chaotic energy sequences

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Pinto, R.A. [Laboratorio de Fisica Estadistica, Centro de Fisica, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas, Apartado 21827, Caracas 1020-A (Venezuela)]. E-mail: ripinto@ivic.ve; Rodriguez, M. [Laboratorio de Fisica Estadistica, Centro de Fisica, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas, Apartado 21827, Caracas 1020-A (Venezuela); Gonzalez, J.A. [Laboratorio de Fisica Computacional, Centro de Fisica, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas, Apartado 21827, Caracas 1020-A (Venezuela); Medina, E. [Laboratorio de Fisica Estadistica, Centro de Fisica, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas, Apartado 21827, Caracas 1020-A (Venezuela)

2005-06-20

We study electronic transport through a one-dimensional array of sites by using a tight binding Hamiltonian, whose site-energies are drawn from a chaotic sequence. The correlation degree between these energies is controlled by a parameter regulating the dynamic Lyapunov exponent measuring the degree of chaos. We observe the effect of chaotic sequences on the localization length, conductance, conductance distribution and wave function, finding evidence of a metal-insulator transition (MIT) at a critical degree of chaos. The one-dimensional metallic phase is characterized by a Gaussian conductance distribution and exhibits a peculiar non-selfaveraging.

Metal-insulator transition and superconductivity in heavily boron-doped diamond and related materials

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Achatz, Philipp

2009-05-15

During this PhD project, the metal-insulator transition and superconductivity of highly boron-doped single crystal diamond and related materials have been investigated. The critical boron concentration n{sub c} for the metal-insulator transition was found to be the same as for the normal-superconductor transition. All metallic samples have been found to be superconducting and we were able to link the occurence of superconductivity to the proximity to the metal-insulator transition. For this purpose, a scaling law approach based on low temperature transport was proposed. Furthermore, we tried to study the nature of the superconductivity in highly boron doped single crystal diamond. Raman spectroscopy measurements on the isotopically substituted series suggest that the feature occuring at low wavenumbers ({approx} 500 cm{sup -1}) is the A1g vibrational mode associated with boron dimers. Usual Hall effect measurements yielded a puzzling situation in metallic boron-doped diamond samples, leading to carrier concentrations up to a factor 10 higher than the boron concentration determined by secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS). The low temperature transport follows the one expected for a granular metal or insulator, depending on the interplay of intergranular and intragranular (tunneling) conductance. The metal-insulator transition takes place at a critical conductance g{sub c}. The granularity also influences significantly the superconducting properties by introducing the superconducting gap {delta} in the grain and Josephson coupling J between superconducting grains. A peak in magnetoresistance is observed which can be explained by superconducting fluctuations and the granularity of the system. Additionally we studied the low temperature transport of boron-doped Si samples grown by gas immersion laser doping, some of which yielded a superconducting transition at very low temperatures. Furthermore, preliminary results on the LO-phonon-plasmon coupling are shown for the

Metal-insulator transition and superconductivity in heavily boron-doped diamond and related materials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Achatz, Philipp

2009-01-01

During this PhD project, the metal-insulator transition and superconductivity of highly boron-doped single crystal diamond and related materials have been investigated. The critical boron concentration n c for the metal-insulator transition was found to be the same as for the normal-superconductor transition. All metallic samples have been found to be superconducting and we were able to link the occurence of superconductivity to the proximity to the metal-insulator transition. For this purpose, a scaling law approach based on low temperature transport was proposed. Furthermore, we tried to study the nature of the superconductivity in highly boron doped single crystal diamond. Raman spectroscopy measurements on the isotopically substituted series suggest that the feature occuring at low wavenumbers (∼ 500 cm -1 ) is the A1g vibrational mode associated with boron dimers. Usual Hall effect measurements yielded a puzzling situation in metallic boron-doped diamond samples, leading to carrier concentrations up to a factor 10 higher than the boron concentration determined by secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS). The low temperature transport follows the one expected for a granular metal or insulator, depending on the interplay of intergranular and intragranular (tunneling) conductance. The metal-insulator transition takes place at a critical conductance g c . The granularity also influences significantly the superconducting properties by introducing the superconducting gap Δ in the grain and Josephson coupling J between superconducting grains. A peak in magnetoresistance is observed which can be explained by superconducting fluctuations and the granularity of the system. Additionally we studied the low temperature transport of boron-doped Si samples grown by gas immersion laser doping, some of which yielded a superconducting transition at very low temperatures. Furthermore, preliminary results on the LO-phonon-plasmon coupling are shown for the first time in aluminum

Strain engineering and one-dimensional organization of metal-insulator domains in single-crystal vanadium dioxide beams.

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, J; Ertekin, E; Srinivasan, V; Fan, W; Huang, S; Zheng, H; Yim, J W L; Khanal, D R; Ogletree, D F; Grossman, J C; Wu, J

2009-11-01

Correlated electron materials can undergo a variety of phase transitions, including superconductivity, the metal-insulator transition and colossal magnetoresistance. Moreover, multiple physical phases or domains with dimensions of nanometres to micrometres can coexist in these materials at temperatures where a pure phase is expected. Making use of the properties of correlated electron materials in device applications will require the ability to control domain structures and phase transitions in these materials. Lattice strain has been shown to cause the coexistence of metallic and insulating phases in the Mott insulator VO(2). Here, we show that we can nucleate and manipulate ordered arrays of metallic and insulating domains along single-crystal beams of VO(2) by continuously tuning the strain over a wide range of values. The Mott transition between a low-temperature insulating phase and a high-temperature metallic phase usually occurs at 341 K in VO(2), but the active control of strain allows us to reduce this transition temperature to room temperature. In addition to device applications, the ability to control the phase structure of VO(2) with strain could lead to a deeper understanding of the correlated electron materials in general.

Metal-insulator transition in SrTi1−xVxO3 thin films

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gu, Man; Wolf, Stuart A.; Lu, Jiwei

2013-01-01

Epitaxial SrTi 1−x V x O 3 (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) thin films were grown on (001)-oriented (LaAlO 3 ) 0.3 (Sr 2 AlTaO 6 ) 0.7 (LSAT) substrates using the pulsed electron-beam deposition technique. The transport study revealed a temperature driven metal-insulator transition (MIT) at 95 K for x = 0.67. The films with higher vanadium concentration (x > 0.67) were metallic corresponding to a Fermi liquid system. In the insulating phase (x < 0.67), the resistivity behavior was governed by Mott's variable range hopping mechanism. The possible mechanisms for the induced MIT are discussed, including the effects of electron correlation, lattice distortion, and Anderson localization

Effects of insulating vanadium oxide composite in concomitant mixed phases via interface barrier modulations on the performance improvements in metal-insulator-metal diodes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kaleem Abbas

2018-03-01

Full Text Available The performance of metal-insulator-metal diodes is investigated for insulating vanadium oxide (VOx composite composed of concomitant mixed phases using the Pt metal as the top and the bottom electrodes. Insulating VOx composite in the Pt/VOx/Pt diode exhibits a high asymmetry of 10 and a very high sensitivity of 2,135V−1 at 0.6 V. The VOx composite provides Schottky-like barriers at the interface, which controls the current flow and the trap-assisted conduction mechanism. Such dramatic enhancement in asymmetry and rectification performance at low applied bias may be ascribed to the dynamic control of the insulating and metallic phases in VOx composites. We find that the nanostructure details of the insulating VOx layer can be critical in enhancing the performance of MIM diodes.

Light scattering by epitaxial VO{sub 2} films near the metal-insulator transition point

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lysenko, Sergiy, E-mail: sergiy.lysenko@upr.edu; Fernández, Felix; Rúa, Armando; Figueroa, Jose; Vargas, Kevin; Cordero, Joseph [Department of Physics, University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico 00681 (United States); Aparicio, Joaquin [Department of Physics, University of Puerto Rico-Ponce, Ponce, Puerto Rico 00732 (United States); Sepúlveda, Nelson [Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824 (United States)

2015-05-14

Experimental observation of metal-insulator transition in epitaxial films of vanadium dioxide is reported. Hemispherical angle-resolved light scattering technique is applied for statistical analysis of the phase transition processes on mesoscale. It is shown that the thermal hysteresis strongly depends on spatial frequency of surface irregularities. The transformation of scattering indicatrix depends on sample morphology and is principally different for the thin films with higher internal elastic strain and for the thicker films where this strain is suppressed by introduction of misfit dislocations. The evolution of scattering indicatrix, fractal dimension, surface power spectral density, and surface autocorrelation function demonstrates distinctive behavior which elucidates the influence of structural defects and strain on thermal hysteresis, twinning of microcrystallites, and domain formation during the phase transition.

Metal-insulator transition in disordered systems from the one-body density matrix

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olsen, Thomas; Resta, Raffaele; Souza, Ivo

2017-01-01

The insulating state of matter can be probed by means of a ground state geometrical marker, which is closely related to the modern theory of polarization (based on a Berry phase). In the present work we show that this marker can be applied to determine the metal-insulator transition in disordered...... the one-body density matrix. The approach has a general ab initio formulation and could in principle be applied to realistic disordered materials by standard electronic structure methods....... systems. In particular, for noninteracting systems the geometrical marker can be obtained from the configurational average of the norm-squared one-body density matrix, which can be calculated within open as well as periodic boundary conditions. This is in sharp contrast to a classification based...

Metal-Insulator Phase Transition in Quasi-One-Dimensional VO2 Structures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Woong-Ki Hong

2015-01-01

Full Text Available The metal-insulator transition (MIT in strongly correlated oxides has attracted considerable attention from both theoretical and experimental researchers. Among the strongly correlated oxides, vanadium dioxide (VO2 has been extensively studied in the last decade because of a sharp, reversible change in its optical, electrical, and magnetic properties at approximately 341 K, which would be possible and promising to develop functional devices with advanced technology by utilizing MITs. However, taking the step towards successful commercialization requires the comprehensive understanding of MIT mechanisms, enabling us to manipulate the nature of transitions. In this regard, recently, quasi-one-dimensional (quasi-1D VO2 structures have been intensively investigated due to their attractive geometry and unique physical properties to observe new aspects of transitions compared with their bulk counterparts. Thus, in this review, we will address recent research progress in the development of various approaches for the modification of MITs in quasi-1D VO2 structures. Furthermore, we will review recent studies on realizing novel functional devices based on quasi-1D VO2 structures for a wide range of applications, such as a gas sensor, a flexible strain sensor, an electrical switch, a thermal memory, and a nonvolatile electrical memory with multiple resistance.

A Review on Disorder-Driven Metal-Insulator Transition in Crystalline Vacancy-Rich GeSbTe Phase-Change Materials.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Jiang-Jing; Xu, Ya-Zhi; Mazzarello, Riccardo; Wuttig, Matthias; Zhang, Wei

2017-07-27

Metal-insulator transition (MIT) is one of the most essential topics in condensed matter physics and materials science. The accompanied drastic change in electrical resistance can be exploited in electronic devices, such as data storage and memory technology. It is generally accepted that the underlying mechanism of most MITs is an interplay of electron correlation effects (Mott type) and disorder effects (Anderson type), and to disentangle the two effects is difficult. Recent progress on the crystalline Ge₁Sb₂Te₄ (GST) compound provides compelling evidence for a disorder-driven MIT. In this work, we discuss the presence of strong disorder in GST, and elucidate its effects on electron localization and transport properties. We also show how the degree of disorder in GST can be reduced via thermal annealing, triggering a disorder-driven metal-insulator transition. The resistance switching by disorder tuning in crystalline GST may enable novel multilevel data storage devices.

Superconductor-insulator transitions in 2D: the experimental situation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Markovic, N.; Christiansen, C.; Mack, A.; Goldman, A.M.

2000-01-01

Superconductor-insulator (SI) transitions in ultrathin films have attracted significant attention over the last decade because of the possibility that they are quantum phase transitions. Magnetic field, film thickness, or carrier concentration can be used as control parameters. The bosonic pictures of these transitions proposed some years ago are only in qualitative agreement with experiment. In particular, the critical resistance appears not to be universal, and there are variations in the values of critical exponents. It has been concluded that in real films fermionic degrees of freedom must be taken into account. There are also indications that the phase diagram may include a significant metallic phase separating the superconducting and insulating phases, and that the transition may have a significant percolative aspect. The experimental situation will be broadly reviewed with attention paid to issues relating to materials and measurements. (orig.)

Practical Improvements to the Lee-More Conductivity Near the Metal-Insulator Transition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Desjarlais, Michael P.

2000-01-01

The wide-range conductivity model of Lee and More is modified to allow better agreement with recent experimental data and theories for dense plasmas in the metal-insulator transition regime. Modifications primarily include a new ionization equilibrium model, consisting of a smooth blend between single ionization Saha (with a pressure ionization correction) and the generic Thomas-Fermi ionization equilibrium, a more accurate treatment of electron-neutral collisions using a polarization potential, and an empirical modification to the minimum allowed collision time. These simple modifications to the Lee-More algorithm permit a more accurate modeling of the physics near the metal-insulator transition, while preserving the generic Lee-More results elsewhere

Practical improvements to the Lee-More conductivity near the metal-insulator transition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Desjarlais, M.P.

2001-01-01

The wide-range conductivity model of Lee and More is modified to allow better agreement with recent experimental data and theories for dense plasmas in the metal-insulator transition regime. Modifications primarily include a new ionization equilibrium model, consisting of a smooth blend between single ionization Saha (with a pressure ionization correction) and the generic Thomas-Fermi ionization equilibrium, a more accurate treatment of electron-neutral collisions using a polarization potential, and an empirical modification to the minimum allowed collision time. These simple modifications to the Lee-More algorithm permit a more accurate modeling of the physics near the metal-insulator transition, while preserving the generic Lee-More results elsewhere. (orig.)

Quantum spin/valley Hall effect and topological insulator phase transitions in silicene

KAUST Repository

Tahir, M.

2013-04-26

We present a theoretical realization of quantum spin and quantum valley Hall effects in silicene. We show that combination of an electric field and intrinsic spin-orbit interaction leads to quantum phase transitions at the charge neutrality point. This phase transition from a two dimensional topological insulator to a trivial insulating state is accompanied by a quenching of the quantum spin Hall effect and the onset of a quantum valley Hall effect, providing a tool to experimentally tune the topological state of silicene. In contrast to graphene and other conventional topological insulators, the proposed effects in silicene are accessible to experiments.

Quantum spin/valley Hall effect and topological insulator phase transitions in silicene

KAUST Repository

Tahir, M.; Manchon, Aurelien; Sabeeh, K.; Schwingenschlö gl, Udo

2013-01-01

We present a theoretical realization of quantum spin and quantum valley Hall effects in silicene. We show that combination of an electric field and intrinsic spin-orbit interaction leads to quantum phase transitions at the charge neutrality point. This phase transition from a two dimensional topological insulator to a trivial insulating state is accompanied by a quenching of the quantum spin Hall effect and the onset of a quantum valley Hall effect, providing a tool to experimentally tune the topological state of silicene. In contrast to graphene and other conventional topological insulators, the proposed effects in silicene are accessible to experiments.

Novel phase transitions in B-site doped manganites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Popovic, Z.V.; Cantarero, A.; Thijssen, W.H.A.; Paunovic, N.; Dohcevic-Mitrovic, Z.; Sapina, F.

2005-01-01

We have examined the infrared reflectivity and the electrical resistivity of La 1- x [Sr(Ba)] x Mn 1- z [Cu(Zn)] z O 3 samples in ferromagnetic metallic and insulator regime. Several phase transitions are observed, the most obvious being the transition from a ferromagnetic metallic to a ferromagnetic insulator phase that is related to the formation of short-range orbitally ordered domains. The temperature T 1 of the phase transition is dependent on doping concentration and for optimally doped samples (∼32% of Mn 4+ ions) we have found T 1 ∼0.93 T C

Quantum anomalous Hall effect and topological phase transition in two-dimensional antiferromagnetic Chern insulator NiOsCl6

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Wei-Wei; Li, Lei; Zhao, Jing-Sheng; Liu, Xiao-Xiong; Deng, Jian-Bo; Tao, Xiao-Ma; Hu, Xian-Ru

2018-05-01

By doing calculations based on density functional theory, we predict that the two-dimensional anti-ferromagnetic (AFM) NiOsCl6 as a Chern insulator can realize the quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect. We investigate the magnetocrystalline anisotropy energies in different magnetic configurations and the Néel AFM configuration is proved to be ground state. When considering spin–orbit coupling (SOC), this layered material with spins perpendicular to the plane shows properties as a Chern insulator characterized by an inversion band structure and a nonzero Chern number. The nontrivial band gap is 37 meV and the Chern number C  =  ‑1, which are induced by a strong SOC and AFM order. With strong SOC, the NiOsCl6 system performs a continuous topological phase transition from the Chern insulator to the trivial insulator upon the increasing Coulomb repulsion U. The critical U c is indicated as 0.23 eV, at which the system is in a metallic phase with . Upon increasing U, the E g reduces linearly with C  =  ‑1 for 0    U c . At last we analysis the QAH properties and this continuous topological phase transition theoretically in a two-band model. This AFM Chern insulator NiOsCl6 proposes not only a promising way to realize the QAH effect, but also a new material to study the continuous topological phase transition.

Uniaxial pressure-induced half-metallic ferromagnetic phase transition in LaMnO3

Science.gov (United States)

Rivero, Pablo; Meunier, Vincent; Shelton, William

2016-03-01

We use first-principles theory to predict that the application of uniaxial compressive strain leads to a transition from an antiferromagnetic insulator to a ferromagnetic half-metal phase in LaMnO3. We identify the Q2 Jahn-Teller mode as the primary mechanism that drives the transition, indicating that this mode can be used to tune the lattice, charge, and spin coupling. Applying ≃6 GPa of uniaxial pressure along the [010] direction activates the transition to a half-metallic pseudocubic state. The half-metallicity opens the possibility of producing colossal magnetoresistance in the stoichiometric LaMnO3 compound at significantly lower pressure compared to recently observed investigations using hydrostatic pressure.

Inverse participation ratio and localization in topological insulator phase transitions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Calixto, M; Romera, E

2015-01-01

Fluctuations of Hamiltonian eigenfunctions, measured by the inverse participation ratio (IPR), turn out to characterize topological-band insulator transitions occurring in 2D Dirac materials like silicene, which is isostructural with graphene but with a strong spin–orbit interaction. Using monotonic properties of the IPR, as a function of a perpendicular electric field (which provides a tunable band gap), we define topological-like quantum numbers that take different values in the topological-insulator and band-insulator phases. (paper)

Thermal radiative near field transport between vanadium dioxide and silicon oxide across the metal insulator transition

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Menges, F.; Spieser, M.; Riel, H.; Gotsmann, B., E-mail: bgo@zurich.ibm.com [IBM Research-Zurich, Säumerstrasse 4, CH-8803 Rüschlikon (Switzerland); Dittberner, M. [IBM Research-Zurich, Säumerstrasse 4, CH-8803 Rüschlikon (Switzerland); Photonics Laboratory, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich (Switzerland); Novotny, L. [Photonics Laboratory, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich (Switzerland); Passarello, D.; Parkin, S. S. P. [IBM Almaden Research Center, 650 Harry Road, San Jose, California 95120 (United States)

2016-04-25

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, and the sphere temperatures were varied in a range between 100 and 200 °C. 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.

Novel phase transitions in B-site doped manganites

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Popovic, Z.V. [Institute of Physics, P.O. Box 68, 11080 Belgrade/Zemun (Serbia and Montenegro)]. E-mail: zoran.popovic@phy.bg.ac.yu; Cantarero, A. [Materials Science Institute, University of Valencia, P.O. Box 22085, 46071 Valencia (Spain); Thijssen, W.H.A. [Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratorium, Leiden University, Postbus 9504, 2300 RA Leiden (Netherlands); Paunovic, N. [Institute of Physics, P.O. Box 68, 11080 Belgrade/Zemun (Serbia and Montenegro); Dohcevic-Mitrovic, Z. [Institute of Physics, P.O. Box 68, 11080 Belgrade/Zemun (Serbia and Montenegro); Sapina, F. [Materials Science Institute, University of Valencia, P.O. Box 22085, 46071 Valencia (Spain)

2005-04-30

We have examined the infrared reflectivity and the electrical resistivity of La{sub 1-} {sub x} [Sr(Ba)] {sub x} Mn{sub 1-} {sub z} [Cu(Zn)] {sub z} O{sub 3} samples in ferromagnetic metallic and insulator regime. Several phase transitions are observed, the most obvious being the transition from a ferromagnetic metallic to a ferromagnetic insulator phase that is related to the formation of short-range orbitally ordered domains. The temperature T {sub 1} of the phase transition is dependent on doping concentration and for optimally doped samples ({approx}32% of Mn{sup 4+} ions) we have found T {sub 1}{approx}0.93 T {sub C}.

Surface antiferromagnetism and incipient metal-insulator transition in strained manganite films

KAUST Repository

Cossu, Fabrizio; Colizzi, G.; Filippetti, A.; Fiorentini, Vincenzo; Schwingenschlö gl, Udo

2013-01-01

Using first-principles calculations, we show that the (001) surface of the ferromagnet La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 under an epitaxial compressive strain favors antiferromagnetic (AF) order in the surface layers, coexisting with ferromagnetic (FM) bulk order. Surface antiferromagnetism is accompanied by a very marked surface-related spectral pseudogap, signaling an incomplete metal-insulator transition at the surface. The different relaxation and rumpling of the MnO2 and LaO surface planes in the two competing magnetic phases cause distinct work-function changes, which are of potential diagnostic use. The AF phase is recognized as an extreme surface-assisted case of the combination of in-plane AF super-exchange and vertical FM double-exchange couplings that rules magnetism in manganites under in-plane compression.

Surface antiferromagnetism and incipient metal-insulator transition in strained manganite films

KAUST Repository

Cossu, Fabrizio

2013-06-21

Using first-principles calculations, we show that the (001) surface of the ferromagnet La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 under an epitaxial compressive strain favors antiferromagnetic (AF) order in the surface layers, coexisting with ferromagnetic (FM) bulk order. Surface antiferromagnetism is accompanied by a very marked surface-related spectral pseudogap, signaling an incomplete metal-insulator transition at the surface. The different relaxation and rumpling of the MnO2 and LaO surface planes in the two competing magnetic phases cause distinct work-function changes, which are of potential diagnostic use. The AF phase is recognized as an extreme surface-assisted case of the combination of in-plane AF super-exchange and vertical FM double-exchange couplings that rules magnetism in manganites under in-plane compression.

Anisotropic phase separation through the metal-insulator transition in amorphous Mo-Ge and Fe-Ge alloys

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Regan, M.J.

1993-12-01

Since an amorphous solid is often defined as that which lacks long-range order, the atomic structure is typically characterized in terms of the high-degree of short-range order. Most descriptions of vapor-deposited amorphous alloys focus on characterizing this order, while assuming that the material is chemically homogeneous beyond a few near neighbors. By coupling traditional small-angle x-ray scattering which probes spatial variations of the electron density with anomalous dispersion which creates a species-specific contrast, one can discern cracks and voids from chemical inhomogeneity. In particular, one finds that the chemical inhomogeneities which have been previously reported in amorphous Fe x Ge 1-x and Mo x Ge 1-x are quite anisotropic, depending significantly on the direction of film growth. With the addition of small amounts of metal atoms (x 2 or MoGe 3 . Finally, by manipulating the deposited power flux and rates of growth, Fe x Ge 1-x films which have the same Fe composition x can be grown to different states of phase separation. These results may help explain the difficulty workers have had in isolating the metal/insulator transition for these and other vapor-deposited amorphous alloys

Interaction effects and quantum phase transitions in topological insulators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Varney, Christopher N.; Sun Kai; Galitski, Victor; Rigol, Marcos

2010-01-01

We study strong correlation effects in topological insulators via the Lanczos algorithm, which we utilize to calculate the exact many-particle ground-state wave function and its topological properties. We analyze the simple, noninteracting Haldane model on a honeycomb lattice with known topological properties and demonstrate that these properties are already evident in small clusters. Next, we consider interacting fermions by introducing repulsive nearest-neighbor interactions. A first-order quantum phase transition was discovered at finite interaction strength between the topological band insulator and a topologically trivial Mott insulating phase by use of the fidelity metric and the charge-density-wave structure factor. We construct the phase diagram at T=0 as a function of the interaction strength and the complex phase for the next-nearest-neighbor hoppings. Finally, we consider the Haldane model with interacting hard-core bosons, where no evidence for a topological phase is observed. An important general conclusion of our work is that despite the intrinsic nonlocality of topological phases their key topological properties manifest themselves already in small systems and therefore can be studied numerically via exact diagonalization and observed experimentally, e.g., with trapped ions and cold atoms in optical lattices.

Insulator-insulator and insulator-conductor transitions in the phase diagram of aluminium trichloride

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Romina Ruberto

2009-01-01

Full Text Available We report a classical computer-simulation study of the phase diagram of AlCl3 in the pressure-temperature (p, T plane, showing (i that melting from a layered crystal structure occurs into a molecular liquid at low (p, T and into a dissociated ionic liquid at high (p, T, and (ii that a broad transition from a molecular insulator to an ionic conductor takes place in the liquid state.

Metal-insulator transition in Si(111)-(4 x 1)/(8 x 2)-In studied by optical spectroscopy

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Speiser, E.; Hinrichs, K.; Cobet, C.; Esser, N. [Leibniz-Institut fuer Analytische Wissenschaften - ISAS - e.V., Albert-Einstein-Str. 9, 12489 Berlin (Germany); Chandola, S. [Leibniz-Institut fuer Analytische Wissenschaften - ISAS - e.V., Albert-Einstein-Str. 9, 12489 Berlin (Germany); School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin 2 (Ireland); Gensch, M. [Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin (Germany); Wippermann, S.; Schmidt, W.G. [Theoretische Physik, Universitaet Paderborn (Germany); Bechstedt, F. [Institut fuer Festkoerpertheorie und -Optik, Friedrich-Schiller-Universitaet, Jena (Germany); Richter, W. [Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita di Roma Tor Vergata, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Roma (Italy); Fleischer, K.; McGilp, J.F. [School of Physics, Trinity College Dublin 2 (Ireland)

2010-08-15

Measurements of the surface vibrational modes and optical response of Si(111)-(4 x 1)/(8 x 2)-In are compiled and a comparison to ab initio calculations performed within DFT-LDA formalism is given. Surface resonant Raman spectroscopy allows identifying a number of surface phonons with high spectral precision. The phase transition of the (4 x 1)-(8 x 2) surface structure is found to be accompanied by characteristic changes of the surface phonons, which are discussed with respect to various structural models suggested. The optical anisotropy of the (8 x 2) phase shows that the anisotropic Drude tail of the (4 x 1) phase is replaced by two peaks at 0.50 and 0.72 eV. The spectroscopic signatures of the (4 x 1) and (8 x 2) phases agree with a metal-insulator transition. The mid-IR-anisotropic optical response of the insulating (8 x 2) phase is interpreted in terms of electronic single particle excitations between surface electronic bands related to the In-nanowire surface. Comparison of the measured optical transitions with DFT ab initio calculations for the hexagon model and the trimer model of the (8 x 2) structure shows evidence for the existence of the hexagon structure. (Abstract Copyright [2010], Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Current-induced metal-insulator transition in VO x thin film prepared by rapid-thermal-annealing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cho, Choong-Rae; Cho, SungIl; Vadim, Sidorkin; Jung, Ranju; Yoo, Inkyeong

2006-01-01

The phenomenon of metal-insulator transition (MIT) in polycrystalline VO x thin films and their preparations have been studied. The films were prepared by sputtering of vanadium thin films succeeded by Rapid Thermal Annealing (RTA) in oxygen ambient at 500 deg. C. Crystalline, compositional, and morphological characterizations reveal a continuous change of phase from vanadium metal to the highest oxide phase, V 2 O 5 , with the time of annealing. Electrical MIT switching has been observed in these films. Sweeping mode, electrode area, and temperature dependent MIT has been studied in Pt/VO x /Pt vertical structure. The important parameters for MIT in VO x have been found to be the current density and the electric field, which depend on carrier density in the films

Metal-insulator transition in nanocomposite VO{sub x} films formed by anodic electrodeposition

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Tsui, Lok-kun; Lu, Jiwei; Zangari, Giovanni, E-mail: gz3e@virginia.edu [Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Virginia, 395 McCormick Rd., Charlottesville, Virginia 22904 (United States); Hildebrand, Helga; Schmuki, Patrik [Department for Materials Science LKO, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Martensstr. 7, D-91058 Erlangen (Germany)

2013-11-11

The ability to grow VO{sub 2} films by electrochemical methods would open a low-cost, easily scalable production route to a number of electronic devices. We have synthesized VO{sub x} films by anodic electrodeposition of V{sub 2}O{sub 5}, followed by partial reduction by annealing in Ar. The resulting films are heterogeneous, consisting of various metallic/oxide phases and including regions with VO{sub 2} stoichiometry. A gradual metal insulator transition with a nearly two order of magnitude change in film resistance is observed between room temperature and 140 °C. In addition, the films exhibit a temperature coefficient of resistance of ∼ −2.4%/ °C from 20 to 140 °C.

Quantum criticality around metal-insulator transitions of strongly correlated electron systems

Science.gov (United States)

Misawa, Takahiro; Imada, Masatoshi

2007-03-01

Quantum criticality of metal-insulator transitions in correlated electron systems is shown to belong to an unconventional universality class with violation of the Ginzburg-Landau-Wilson (GLW) scheme formulated for symmetry breaking transitions. This unconventionality arises from an emergent character of the quantum critical point, which appears at the marginal point between the Ising-type symmetry breaking at nonzero temperatures and the topological transition of the Fermi surface at zero temperature. We show that Hartree-Fock approximations of an extended Hubbard model on square lattices are capable of such metal-insulator transitions with unusual criticality under a preexisting symmetry breaking. The obtained universality is consistent with the scaling theory formulated for Mott transitions and with a number of numerical results beyond the mean-field level, implying that preexisting symmetry breaking is not necessarily required for the emergence of this unconventional universality. Examinations of fluctuation effects indicate that the obtained critical exponents remain essentially exact beyond the mean-field level. It further clarifies the whole structure of singularities by a unified treatment of the bandwidth-control and filling-control transitions. Detailed analyses of the criticality, containing diverging carrier density fluctuations around the marginal quantum critical point, are presented from microscopic calculations and reveal the nature as quantum critical “opalescence.” The mechanism of emerging marginal quantum critical point is ascribed to a positive feedback and interplay between the preexisting gap formation present even in metals and kinetic energy gain (loss) of the metallic carrier. Analyses of crossovers between GLW type at nonzero temperature and topological type at zero temperature show that the critical exponents observed in (V,Cr)2O3 and κ-ET -type organic conductors provide us with evidence for the existence of the present marginal

Deep learning the quantum phase transitions in random two-dimensional electron systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ohtsuki, Tomoki; Ohtsuki, Tomi

2016-01-01

Random electron systems show rich phases such as Anderson insulator, diffusive metal, quantum Hall and quantum anomalous Hall insulators, Weyl semimetal, as well as strong/weak topological insulators. Eigenfunctions of each matter phase have specific features, but owing to the random nature of systems, determining the matter phase from eigenfunctions is difficult. Here, we propose the deep learning algorithm to capture the features of eigenfunctions. Localization-delocalization transition, as well as disordered Chern insulator-Anderson insulator transition, is discussed. (author)

Photoinduced Topological Phase Transitions in Topological Magnon Insulators.

Science.gov (United States)

Owerre, S A

2018-03-13

Topological magnon insulators are the bosonic analogs of electronic topological insulators. They are manifested in magnetic materials with topologically nontrivial magnon bands as realized experimentally in a quasi-two-dimensional (quasi-2D) kagomé ferromagnet Cu(1-3, bdc), and they also possess protected magnon edge modes. These topological magnetic materials can transport heat as well as spin currents, hence they can be useful for spintronic applications. Moreover, as magnons are charge-neutral spin-1 bosonic quasiparticles with a magnetic dipole moment, topological magnon materials can also interact with electromagnetic fields through the Aharonov-Casher effect. In this report, we study photoinduced topological phase transitions in intrinsic topological magnon insulators in the kagomé ferromagnets. Using magnonic Floquet-Bloch theory, we show that by varying the light intensity, periodically driven intrinsic topological magnetic materials can be manipulated into different topological phases with different sign of the Berry curvatures and the thermal Hall conductivity. We further show that, under certain conditions, periodically driven gapped topological magnon insulators can also be tuned to synthetic gapless topological magnon semimetals with Dirac-Weyl magnon cones. We envision that this work will pave the way for interesting new potential practical applications in topological magnetic materials.

Tuning the metal-insulator transition in manganite films through surface exchange coupling with magnetic nanodots.

Science.gov (United States)

Ward, T Z; Gai, Z; Xu, X Y; Guo, H W; Yin, L F; Shen, J

2011-04-15

In strongly correlated electronic systems, the global transport behavior depends sensitively on spin ordering. We show that spin ordering in manganites can be controlled by depositing isolated ferromagnetic nanodots at the surface. The exchange field at the interface is tunable with nanodot density and makes it possible to overcome dimensionality and strain effects in frustrated systems to greatly increasing the metal-insulator transition and magnetoresistance. These findings indicate that electronic phase separation can be controlled by the presence of magnetic nanodots.

Enhanced superconductivity and superconductor to insulator transition in nano-crystalline molybdenum thin films

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sharma, Shilpam; Amaladass, E.P. [Condensed Matter Physics Division, Materials Science Group, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam 603102 (India); Sharma, Neha [Surface & Nanoscience Division, Materials Science Group, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam 603102 (India); Harimohan, V. [Condensed Matter Physics Division, Materials Science Group, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam 603102 (India); Amirthapandian, S. [Materials Physics Division, Materials Science Group, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam 603102 (India); Mani, Awadhesh, E-mail: mani@igcar.gov.in [Condensed Matter Physics Division, Materials Science Group, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam 603102 (India)

2017-06-01

Disorder driven superconductor to insulator transition via intermediate metallic regime is reported in nano-crystalline thin films of molybdenum. The nano-structured thin films have been deposited at room temperature using DC magnetron sputtering at different argon pressures. The grain size has been tuned using deposition pressure as the sole control parameter. A variation of particle sizes, room temperature resistivity and superconducting transition has been studied as a function of deposition pressure. The nano-crystalline molybdenum thin films are found to have large carrier concentration but very low mobility and electronic mean free path. Hall and conductivity measurements have been used to understand the effect of disorder on the carrier density and mobilities. Ioffe-Regel parameter is shown to correlate with the continuous metal-insulator transition in our samples. - Highlights: • Thin films of molybdenum using DC sputtering have been deposited on glass. • Argon background pressure during sputtering was used to tune the crystallite sizes of films. • Correlation in deposition pressure, disorder and particle sizes has been observed. • Disorder tuned superconductor to insulator transition along with an intermediate metallic phase has been observed. • Enhancement of superconducting transition temperature and a dome shaped T{sub C} vs. deposition pressure phase diagram has been observed.

Metal-insulator transition and superconductivity induced by Rh doping in the binary pnictides RuPn (Pn=P, As, Sb)

Science.gov (United States)

Hirai, Daigorou; Takayama, Tomohiro; Hashizume, Daisuke; Takagi, Hidenori

2012-04-01

Binary ruthenium pnictides, RuP and RuAs, with an orthorhombic MnP structure, were found to show a metal to a nonmagnetic insulator transition at TMI = 270 and 200 K, respectively. In the metallic region above TMI, a structural phase transition, accompanied with a weak anomaly in the resistivity and the magnetic susceptibility, indicative of a pseudogap formation, was identified at Ts = 330 and 280 K, respectively. These two transitions were suppressed by substituting Ru with Rh. We found superconductivity with a maximum Tc = 3.7 and 1.8 K in a narrow composition range around the critical point for the pseudogap phase, Rh content xc = 0.45 and 0.25 for Ru1-xRhxP and Ru1-xRhxAs, respectively, which may provide us with a nonmagnetic route to superconductivity at a quantum critical point.

Dimensional crossover and cold-atom realization of gapless and semi-metallic Mott insulating phases

Science.gov (United States)

Orth, Peter P.; Scheurer, Mathias; Rachel, Stephan

2014-03-01

We propose a realistic cold-atom setup which allows for a dimensional crossover from a two-dimensional quantum spin Hall insulating phase to a three-dimensional strong topological insulator phase by simply tuning the hopping between the layers. We further employ cluster slave-rotor mean-field theory to study the effect of additional Hubbard onsite interactions that give rise to various spin liquid-like phases such as gapless and semi-metallic Mott insulating states.

High-pressure phase transition of alkali metal-transition metal deuteride Li2PdD2

Science.gov (United States)

Yao, Yansun; Stavrou, Elissaios; Goncharov, Alexander F.; Majumdar, Arnab; Wang, Hui; Prakapenka, Vitali B.; Epshteyn, Albert; Purdy, Andrew P.

2017-06-01

A combined theoretical and experimental study of lithium palladium deuteride (Li2PdD2) subjected to pressures up to 50 GPa reveals one structural phase transition near 10 GPa, detected by synchrotron powder x-ray diffraction, and metadynamics simulations. The ambient-pressure tetragonal phase of Li2PdD2 transforms into a monoclinic C2/m phase that is distinct from all known structures of alkali metal-transition metal hydrides/deuterides. The structure of the high-pressure phase was characterized using ab initio computational techniques and from refinement of the powder x-ray diffraction data. In the high-pressure phase, the PdD2 complexes lose molecular integrity and are fused to extended [PdD2]∞ chains. The discovered phase transition and new structure are relevant to the possible hydrogen storage application of Li2PdD2 and alkali metal-transition metal hydrides in general.

Multilevel radiative thermal memory realized by the hysteretic metal-insulator transition of vanadium dioxide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ito, Kota; Nishikawa, Kazutaka; Iizuka, Hideo

2016-01-01

Thermal information processing is attracting much interest as an analog of electronic computing. We experimentally demonstrated a radiative thermal memory utilizing a phase change material. The hysteretic metal-insulator transition of vanadium dioxide (VO 2 ) allows us to obtain a multilevel memory. We developed a Preisach model to explain the hysteretic radiative heat transfer between a VO 2 film and a fused quartz substrate. The transient response of our memory predicted by the Preisach model agrees well with the measured response. Our multilevel thermal memory paves the way for thermal information processing as well as contactless thermal management

Multilevel radiative thermal memory realized by the hysteretic metal-insulator transition of vanadium dioxide

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ito, Kota, E-mail: kotaito@mosk.tytlabs.co.jp; Nishikawa, Kazutaka; Iizuka, Hideo [Toyota Central Research and Development Labs, Nagakute, Aichi 480-1192 (Japan)

2016-02-01

Thermal information processing is attracting much interest as an analog of electronic computing. We experimentally demonstrated a radiative thermal memory utilizing a phase change material. The hysteretic metal-insulator transition of vanadium dioxide (VO{sub 2}) allows us to obtain a multilevel memory. We developed a Preisach model to explain the hysteretic radiative heat transfer between a VO{sub 2} film and a fused quartz substrate. The transient response of our memory predicted by the Preisach model agrees well with the measured response. Our multilevel thermal memory paves the way for thermal information processing as well as contactless thermal management.

Local Peltier-effect-induced reversible metal–insulator transition in VO2 nanowires

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Takami, Hidefumi; Kanki, Teruo; Tanaka, Hidekazu

2016-01-01

We report anomalous resistance leaps and drops in VO 2 nanowires with operating current density and direction, showing reversible and nonvolatile switching. This event is associated with the metal–insulator phase transition (MIT) of local nanodomains with coexistence states of metallic and insulating phases induced by thermoelectric cooling and heating effects. Because the interface of metal and insulator domains has much different Peltier coefficient, it is possible that a significant Peltier effect would be a source of the local MIT. This operation can be realized by one-dimensional domain configuration in VO 2 nanowires because one straight current path through the electronic domain-interface enables theoretical control of thermoelectric effects. This result will open a new method of reversible control of electronic states in correlated electron materials.

Metal-insulator transition in SrTi{sub 1−x}V{sub x}O{sub 3} thin films

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Gu, Man [Department of Physics, University of Virginia, 382 McCormick Rd., Charlottesville, Virginia 22904 (United States); Wolf, Stuart A. [Department of Physics, University of Virginia, 382 McCormick Rd., Charlottesville, Virginia 22904 (United States); Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Virginia, 395 McCormick Rd., Charlottesville, Virginia 22904 (United States); Lu, Jiwei [Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Virginia, 395 McCormick Rd., Charlottesville, Virginia 22904 (United States)

2013-11-25

Epitaxial SrTi{sub 1−x}V{sub x}O{sub 3} (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) thin films were grown on (001)-oriented (LaAlO{sub 3}){sub 0.3}(Sr{sub 2}AlTaO{sub 6}){sub 0.7} (LSAT) substrates using the pulsed electron-beam deposition technique. The transport study revealed a temperature driven metal-insulator transition (MIT) at 95 K for x = 0.67. The films with higher vanadium concentration (x > 0.67) were metallic corresponding to a Fermi liquid system. In the insulating phase (x < 0.67), the resistivity behavior was governed by Mott's variable range hopping mechanism. The possible mechanisms for the induced MIT are discussed, including the effects of electron correlation, lattice distortion, and Anderson localization.

Metal-insulator transition and Frohlich conductivity in the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Michielsen, K.F L; de Raedt, H.A.

1996-01-01

A quantum molecular dynamics technique is used to study the single-particle density of states, Drude weight, optical conductivity and flux quantization in the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) model. Our simulation data show that the SSH model has a metal-insulator transition away from half-filling. In the

Phase controlled metal–insulator transition in multi-leg quasiperiodic optical lattices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Maiti, Santanu K.; Sil, Shreekantha; Chakrabarti, Arunava

2017-01-01

A tight-binding model of a multi-leg ladder network with a continuous quasiperiodic modulation in both the site potential and the inter-arm hopping integral is considered. The model mimics optical lattices where ultra-cold fermionic or bosonic atoms are trapped in double well potentials. It is observed that, the relative phase difference between the on-site potential and the inter-arm hopping integral, which can be controlled by the tuning of the interfering laser beams trapping the cold atoms, can result in a mixed spectrum of one or more absolutely continuous subband(s) and point like spectral measures. This opens up the possibility of a re-entrant metal–insulator transition. The subtle role played by the relative phase difference mentioned above is revealed, and we corroborate it numerically by working out the multi-channel electronic transmission for finite two-, and three-leg ladder networks. The extension of the calculation beyond the two-leg case is trivial, and is discussed in the work. - Graphical abstract: ▪ - Highlights: • Phase controlled metal–insulator transition is discussed. • An analytical prescription is given to understand MI transition. • Our work provides a way of designing experiments involving laser beams.

Pressure-driven phase transitions in TiOCl and the family (Ca, Sr, Ba)Fe2As2

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang YuZhong; Opahle, Ingo; Jeschke, Harald O; ValentI, Roser

2010-01-01

Motivated by recent experimental measurements on pressure-driven phase transitions in Mott insulators as well as the new iron pnictide superconductors, we show that first principles Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics calculations are a powerful method to describe the microscopic origin of such transitions. We present results for (i) the pressure-induced insulator to metal phase transition in the prototypical Mott insulator TiOCl as well as (ii) the pressure-induced structural and magnetic phase transitions in the family of correlated metals AFe 2 As 2 (A = Ca, Sr, Ba). Comparison of our predictions with existing experimental results yields very good agreement.

Deep Learning the Quantum Phase Transitions in Random Electron Systems: Applications to Three Dimensions

Science.gov (United States)

Ohtsuki, Tomi; Ohtsuki, Tomoki

2017-04-01

Three-dimensional random electron systems undergo quantum phase transitions and show rich phase diagrams. Examples of the phases are the band gap insulator, Anderson insulator, strong and weak topological insulators, Weyl semimetal, and diffusive metal. As in the previous paper on two-dimensional quantum phase transitions [J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 85, 123706 (2016)], we use an image recognition algorithm based on a multilayered convolutional neural network to identify which phase the eigenfunction belongs to. The Anderson model for localization-delocalization transition, the Wilson-Dirac model for topological insulators, and the layered Chern insulator model for Weyl semimetal are studied. The situation where the standard transfer matrix approach is not applicable is also treated by this method.

Boson localization and the superfluid-insulator transition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fisher, M.P.A.; Weichman, P.B.; Grinstein, G.; Fisher, D.S.; Condensed Matter Physics 114-36, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125; IBM Research Division, Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598; Joseph Henry Laboratory of Physics, Jadwin Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544)

1989-01-01

The phase diagrams and phase transitions of bosons with short-ranged repulsive interactions moving in periodic and/or random external potentials at zero temperature are investigated with emphasis on the superfluid-insulator transition induced by varying a parameter such as the density. Bosons in periodic potentials (e.g., on a lattice) at T=0 exhibit two types of phases: a superfluid phase and Mott insulating phases characterized by integer (or commensurate) boson densities, by the existence of a gap for particle-hole excitations, and by zero compressibility. Generically, the superfluid onset transition in d dimensions from a Mott insulator to superfluidity is ''ideal,'' or mean field in character, but at special multicritical points with particle-hole symmetry it is in the universality class of the (d+1)-dimensional XY model. In the presence of disorder, a third, ''Bose glass'' phase exists. This phase is insulating because of the localization effects of the randomness and analogous to the Fermi glass phase of interacting fermions in a strongly disordered potential

c -Axis Dimer and Its Electronic Breakup: The Insulator-to-Metal Transition in Ti2 O3

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, C. F.; Koethe, T. C.; Hu, Z.; Weinen, J.; Agrestini, S.; Zhao, L.; Gegner, J.; Ott, H.; Panaccione, G.; Wu, Hua; Haverkort, M. W.; Roth, H.; Komarek, A. C.; Offi, F.; Monaco, G.; Liao, Y.-F.; Tsuei, K.-D.; Lin, H.-J.; Chen, C. T.; Tanaka, A.; Tjeng, L. H.

2018-04-01

We report on our investigation of the electronic structure of Ti2 O3 using (hard) x-ray photoelectron and soft x-ray absorption spectroscopy. From the distinct satellite structures in the spectra, we have been able to establish unambiguously that the Ti-Ti c -axis dimer in the corundum crystal structure is electronically present and forms an a1 ga1 g molecular singlet in the low-temperature insulating phase. Upon heating, we observe a considerable spectral weight transfer to lower energies with orbital reconstruction. The insulator-metal transition may be viewed as a transition from a solid of isolated Ti-Ti molecules into a solid of electronically partially broken dimers, where the Ti ions acquire additional hopping in the a -b plane via the egπ channel, the opening of which requires consideration of the multiplet structure of the on-site Coulomb interaction.

Coexistence of metallic and insulating channels in compressed YbB6

Science.gov (United States)

Ying, Jianjun; Tang, Lingyun; Chen, Fei; Chen, Xianhui; Struzhkin, Viktor V.

2018-03-01

It remains controversial whether compressed YbB6 material is a topological insulator or a Kondo topological insulator. We performed high-pressure transport, x-ray diffraction (XRD), x-ray absorption spectroscopy, and Raman-scattering measurements on YbB6 samples in search for its topological Kondo phase. Both high-pressure powder XRD and Raman measurements show no trace of structural phase transitions in YbB6 up to 50 GPa. The nonmagnetic Yb2 + gradually change to magnetic Yb3 + above 18 GPa concomitantly with the increase in resistivity. However, the transition to the insulating state occurs only around 30 GPa, accompanied by the increase in the shear stress, and anomalies in the pressure dependence of the Raman T2 g mode and in the B atomic position. The resistivity at high pressures can be described by a model taking into account coexisting insulating and metallic channels with the activation energy for the insulating channel about 30 meV. We argue that YbB6 may become a topological Kondo insulator at high pressures above 35 GPa.

Absence of Mass Renormalization upon the Metal-Insulator Transition in La_1-xSr_xMnO_3

Science.gov (United States)

Okuda, T.; Asamitsu, A.; Tokura, Y.

1998-03-01

The low-temperature specific heat as well as the resistivity of La_1-xSr_xMnO3 crystals has been measured under magnetic fields to investigate the critical behavior of the metal-insulator (MI) transition, which is induced by carrier doping around a critical composition of x_c=0.17. We observed the reduction of specific heat by application of magnetic fields, which is due to the suppression of the contribution of spin wave. Thus, the magnetic contribution to the specific heat was carefully removed to extract the electronic contribution. The effective mass, derived from obtained electronic specific heat coefficient γ, is a few times as large as a bare mass in the ferromagnetic metallic state, e.g. γ = 3.5 (mJ/K^2 mole) at x=0.3, and does not critically increase around the critical point while showing the maximum value γ = 5.1 (mJ/K^2 mole) at x=0.18. This is in contrast with the conspicuous mass renormalization effect as observed for other transition metal oxide, eg. V_2O3 and LaTiO_3. The γ value rather decreases with the decrease of x from 0.18 to 0.15, namely in the immediate vicinity of the MI boundary. This suggests that the Fermi surface gradually shrinks towards the insulating phase and finally disappears at the MI phase boundary. This work was supported by New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) of Japan.

Metal-insulator transition in n-InSb under high hydrostatic pressure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schaller, U.; Kraak, W.; Herrmann, R.

1984-01-01

The effect of applying hydrostatic compression (up to 12 kbar) to the galvanomagnetic properties of pure n-InSb crystals is investigated in order to get information about the influence of hydrostatic pressure on the localization of carriers and about the metal-insulator transition. Electrical resistivity and Hall coefficient are measured as a function of pressure for various excess donor concentrations as well as a function of temperature for various pressures

Valley polarized quantum Hall effect and topological insulator phase transitions in silicene

KAUST Repository

Tahir, M.; Schwingenschlö gl, Udo

2013-01-01

encountered for graphene, in particular the zero band gap and weak spin orbit interaction. We demonstrate a valley polarized quantum Hall effect and topological insulator phase transitions. We use the Kubo formalism to discuss the Hall conductivity and address

Local Peltier-effect-induced reversible metal–insulator transition in VO{sub 2} nanowires

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Takami, Hidefumi; Kanki, Teruo, E-mail: kanki@sanken.osaka-u.ac.jp, E-mail: h-tanaka@sanken.osaka-u.ac.jp; Tanaka, Hidekazu, E-mail: kanki@sanken.osaka-u.ac.jp, E-mail: h-tanaka@sanken.osaka-u.ac.jp [Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research, Osaka University, 8-1 Mihogaoka, Ibaraki, Osaka 567-0047 (Japan)

2016-06-15

We report anomalous resistance leaps and drops in VO{sub 2} nanowires with operating current density and direction, showing reversible and nonvolatile switching. This event is associated with the metal–insulator phase transition (MIT) of local nanodomains with coexistence states of metallic and insulating phases induced by thermoelectric cooling and heating effects. Because the interface of metal and insulator domains has much different Peltier coefficient, it is possible that a significant Peltier effect would be a source of the local MIT. This operation can be realized by one-dimensional domain configuration in VO{sub 2} nanowires because one straight current path through the electronic domain-interface enables theoretical control of thermoelectric effects. This result will open a new method of reversible control of electronic states in correlated electron materials.

Metal-Insulator Transition in Copper Oxides Induced by Apex Displacements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Swagata Acharya

2018-05-01

Full Text Available High temperature superconductivity has been found in many kinds of compounds built from planes of Cu and O, separated by spacer layers. Understanding why critical temperatures are so high has been the subject of numerous investigations and extensive controversy. To realize high temperature superconductivity, parent compounds are either hole doped, such as La_{2}CuO_{4} (LCO with Sr (LSCO, or electron doped, such as Nd_{2}CuO_{4} (NCO with Ce (NCCO. In the electron-doped cuprates, the antiferromagnetic phase is much more robust than the superconducting phase. However, it was recently found that the reduction of residual out-of-plane apical oxygen dramatically affects the phase diagram, driving those compounds to a superconducting phase. Here we use a recently developed first-principles method to explore how displacement of the apical oxygen (AO in LCO affects the optical gap, spin and charge susceptibilities, and superconducting order parameter. By combining quasiparticle self-consistent GW (QS GW and dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT, we show that LCO is a Mott insulator, but small displacements of the apical oxygen drive the compound to a metallic state through a localization-delocalization transition, with a concomitant maximum in d-wave order parameter at the transition. We address the question of whether NCO can be seen as the limit of LCO with large apical displacements, and we elucidate the deep physical reasons why the behavior of NCO is so different from the hole-doped materials. We shed new light on the recent correlation observed between T_{c} and the charge transfer gap, while also providing a guide towards the design of optimized high-T_{c} superconductors. Further, our results suggest that strong correlation, enough to induce a Mott gap, may not be a prerequisite for high-T_{c} superconductivity.

Spin-Driven Emergent Antiferromagnetism and Metal-Insulator Transition in Nanoscale p-Si

Science.gov (United States)

Lou, Paul C.; Kumar, Sandeep

2018-04-01

The entanglement of the charge, spin and orbital degrees of freedom can give rise to emergent behavior especially in thin films, surfaces and interfaces. Often, materials that exhibit those properties require large spin orbit coupling. We hypothesize that the emergent behavior can also occur due to spin, electron and phonon interactions in widely studied simple materials such as Si. That is, large intrinsic spin-orbit coupling is not an essential requirement for emergent behavior. The central hypothesis is that when one of the specimen dimensions is of the same order (or smaller) as the spin diffusion length, then non-equilibrium spin accumulation due to spin injection or spin-Hall effect (SHE) will lead to emergent phase transformations in the non-ferromagnetic semiconductors. In this experimental work, we report spin mediated emergent antiferromagnetism and metal insulator transition in a Pd (1 nm)/Ni81Fe19 (25 nm)/MgO (1 nm)/p-Si (~400 nm) thin film specimen. The spin-Hall effect in p-Si, observed through Rashba spin-orbit coupling mediated spin-Hall magnetoresistance behavior, is proposed to cause the spin accumulation and resulting emergent behavior. The phase transition is discovered from the diverging behavior in longitudinal third harmonic voltage, which is related to the thermal conductivity and heat capacity.

Ginsburg-Landau equation around the superconductor-insulator transition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ng, T.K.

1991-01-01

Based on the scaling theory of localization, we construct a Ginsburg-Landau (GL) equation for superconductors in an arbitrary strength of disordered potential. Using this GL equation, we reexamine the criteria for the superconductor-insulator transition and find that the transition to a localized superconductor can happen on both sides of the (normal) metal-insulator transition, in contrast to a previous prediction by Ma and Lee [Phys. Rev. B 32, 5658 (1985)] that the transition can only be on the insulator side. Furthermore, by comparing our theory with a recent scaling theory of dirty bosons by Fisher et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 64, 587 (1990)], we conclude that nontrivial crossover behavior in transport properties may occur in the vicinity of the superconductor-insulator transition

Nanoscale Phase Separation and Lattice Complexity in VO2: The Metal–Insulator Transition Investigated by XANES via Auger Electron Yield at the Vanadium L23-Edge and Resonant Photoemission

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Augusto Marcelli

2017-12-01

Full Text Available Among transition metal oxides, VO2 is a particularly interesting and challenging correlated electron material where an insulator to metal transition (MIT occurs near room temperature. Here we investigate a 16 nm thick strained vanadium dioxide film, trying to clarify the dynamic behavior of the insulator/metal transition. We measured (resonant photoemission below and above the MIT transition temperature, focusing on heating and cooling effects at the vanadium L23-edge using X-ray Absorption Near-Edge Structure (XANES. The vanadium L23-edges probe the transitions from the 2p core level to final unoccupied states with 3d orbital symmetry above the Fermi level. The dynamics of the 3d unoccupied states both at the L3- and at the L2-edge are in agreement with the hysteretic behavior of this thin film. In the first stage of the cooling, the 3d unoccupied states do not change while the transition in the insulating phase appears below 60 °C. Finally, Resonant Photoemission Spectra (ResPES point out a shift of the Fermi level of ~0.75 eV, which can be correlated to the dynamics of the 3d// orbitals, the electron–electron correlation, and the stability of the metallic state.

Dynamically Babinet-invertible metasurface: a capacitive-inductive reconfigurable filter for terahertz waves using vanadium-dioxide metal-insulator transition

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Urade, Yoshiro; Nakata, Yosuke; Okimura, Kunio; Nakanishi, Toshihiro; Miyamaru, Fumiaki; Takeda, Mitsuo W.; Kitano, Masao

2016-03-01

This paper proposes a reconfigurable planar metamaterial that can be switched between capacitive and inductive responses using local changes in the electrical conductivity of its constituent material. The proposed device is based on Babinet's principle and exploits the singular electromagnetic responses of metallic checkerboard structures, which are dependent on the local electrical conductivity. Utilizing the heating-induced metal-insulator transition of vanadium dioxide ($\\mathrm{VO}_2$), the proposed metamaterial is designed to compensate for the effect of the substrate and is experimentally characterized in the terahertz regime. This reconfigurable metamaterial can be utilized as a switchable filter and as a switchable phase shifter for terahertz waves.

Strain-induced metal-insulator phase coexistence in perovskite manganites.

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Ahn, K H; Lookman, T; Bishop, A R

2004-03-25

The coexistence of distinct metallic and insulating electronic phases within the same sample of a perovskite manganite, such as La(1-x-y)Pr(y)Ca(x)MnO3, presents researchers with a tool for tuning the electronic properties in materials. In particular, colossal magnetoresistance in these materials--the dramatic reduction of resistivity in a magnetic field--is closely related to the observed texture owing to nanometre- and micrometre-scale inhomogeneities. Despite accumulated data from various high-resolution probes, a theoretical understanding for the existence of such inhomogeneities has been lacking. Mechanisms invoked so far, usually based on electronic mechanisms and chemical disorder, have been inadequate to describe the multiscale, multiphase coexistence within a unified picture. Moreover, lattice distortions and long-range strains are known to be important in the manganites. Here we show that the texturing can be due to the intrinsic complexity of a system with strong coupling between the electronic and elastic degrees of freedom. This leads to local energetically favourable configurations and provides a natural mechanism for the self-organized inhomogeneities over both nanometre and micrometre scales. The framework provides a physical understanding of various experimental results and a basis for engineering nanoscale patterns of metallic and insulating phases.

Superlattice formation lifting degeneracy protected by nonsymmorphic symmetry through a metal-insulator transition in RuAs

Science.gov (United States)

Kotegawa, Hisashi; Takeda, Keiki; Kuwata, Yoshiki; Hayashi, Junichi; Tou, Hideki; Sugawara, Hitoshi; Sakurai, Takahiro; Ohta, Hitoshi; Harima, Hisatomo

2018-05-01

A single crystal of RuAs obtained with the Bi-flux method shows obvious successive metal-insulator transitions at TMI 1˜255 K and TMI 2˜195 K. The x-ray diffraction measurement reveals the formation of a superlattice of 3 ×3 ×3 of the original unit cell below TMI 2, accompanied by a change of the crystal system from the orthorhombic structure to the monoclinic one. Simple dimerization of the Ru ions is not seen in the ground state. The multiple As sites observed in the nuclear quadrupole resonance spectrum also demonstrate the formation of the superlattice in the ground state, which is clarified to be nonmagnetic. The divergence in 1 /T1 at TMI 1 shows that a symmetry lowering by the metal-insulator transition is accompanied by strong critical fluctuations of some degrees of freedom. Using the structural parameters in the insulating state, the first-principles calculation reproduces successfully the reasonable size of nuclear quadrupole frequencies νQ for the multiple As sites, ensuring the high validity of the structural parameters. The calculation also gives a remarkable suppression in the density of states near the Fermi level, although the gap opening is insufficient. A coupled modulation of the calculated Ru d -electron numbers and the crystal structure proposes the formation of a charge density wave in RuAs. Some lacking factors remain, but it is shown that a lifting of degeneracy protected by the nonsymmorphic symmetry through the superlattice formation is a key ingredient for the metal-insulator transition in RuAs.

On the Mott transition and the new metal-insulator transitions in doped covalent and polar crystals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dzhumanov, S.; Begimkulov, U.; Kurbanov, U.T.; Yavidov, B.Y.

2001-10-01

The Mott transition and new metal-insulator transitions (MIT's) and their distinctive features in doped covalent semiconductors and polar compounds are studied within the continuum model of extrinsic carrier self-trapping, the Hubbard impurity band model (with on-site Coulomb repulsion and screening effects) and the extrinsic (bi)polaronic band model (with short- and long-range carrier-impurity, impurity-phonon and carrier-phonon interactions and intercarrier correlation) using the appropriate tight-binding approximations and variational methods. We have shown the formation possibility of large-radius localized one- and two-carrier impurity (or defect) states and narrow impurity bands in the band gap and charge transfer gap of these carrier-doped systems. The extrinsic Mott-Hubbard and (bi)polaronic insulating gaps are calculated exactly. The proper criterions for Mott transition, extrinsic excitonic and (bi)polaronic MIT's are obtained. We have demonstrated that the Mott transition occurs in doped covalent semiconductors (i.e. Si and Ge) and some insulators with weak carrier-phonon coupling near the large-radius dopants. While, in doped polar compounds (e.g. oxide high-T c superconductors (HTSC) and related materials) the MIT's are new extrinsic (or intrinsic) (bi)polaronic MIT's. We have found that the anisotropy of the dielectric (or (bi)polaronic) properties of doped cuprate HTSC is responsible for smooth (or continuous) MIT's, stripe formation and suppression of high-T c superconductivity. Various experimental results on in-gap states, bands and MIT's in doped covalent semiconductors, oxide HTSC and related materials are in good agreement with the developed theory of Mott transition and new (bi)polaronic MIT's. (author)

arXiv Gauge Topological Nature of the Superconductor-Insulator Transition

CERN Document Server

Diamantini, M.C.; Lukyanchuk, I.; Vinokur, V.M.

It has long been believed that, at absolute zero, electrons can form only one quantum coherent state, a superconductor. Yet, several two dimensional superconducting systems were found to harbor the superinsulating state with infinite resistance, a mirror image of superconductivity, and a metallic state often referred to as Bose metal, characterized by finite longitudinal and vanishing Hall resistances. The nature of these novel and mysterious quantum coherent states is the subject of intense study.Here, we propose a topological gauge description of the superconductor-insulator transition (SIT) that enables us to identify the underlying mechanism of superinsulation as Polyakov's linear confinement of Cooper pairs via instantons. We find a criterion defining conditions for either a direct SIT or for the SIT via the intermediate Bose metal and demonstrate that this Bose metal phase is a Mott topological insulator in which the Cooper pair-vortex liquid is frozen by Aharonov-Bohm interactions.

Dynamic conductivity from audio to optical frequencies of semiconducting manganites approaching the metal-insulator transition

Science.gov (United States)

Lunkenheimer, P.; Mayr, F.; Loidl, A.

2006-07-01

We report the frequency-dependent conductivity of the manganite system La1-xSrxMnO3 (x0.2) when approaching the metal-insulator transition from the insulating side. Results from low-frequency dielectric measurements are combined with spectra in the infrared region. For low doping levels the behavior is dominated by hopping transport of localized charge carriers at low frequencies and by phononic and electronic excitations in the infrared region. For the higher Sr contents the approach of the metallic state is accompanied by the successive suppression of the hopping contribution at low frequencies and by the development of polaronic excitations in the infrared region, which finally become superimposed by a strong Drude contribution in the fully metallic state.

Transient transition from free carrier metallic state to exciton insulating state in GaAs by ultrafast photoexcitation

Science.gov (United States)

Nie, X. C.; Song, Hai-Ying; Zhang, Xiu; Gu, Peng; Liu, Shi-Bing; Li, Fan; Meng, Jian-Qiao; Duan, Yu-Xia; Liu, H. Y.

2018-03-01

We present systematic studies of the transient dynamics of GaAs by ultrafast time-resolved reflectivity. In photoexcited non-equilibrium states, we found a sign reverse in reflectivity change ΔR/R, from positive around room temperature to negative at cryogenic temperatures. The former corresponds to a free carrier metallic state, while the latter is attributed to an exciton insulating state, in which the transient electronic properties is mostly dominated by excitons, resulting in a transient metal–insulator transition (MIT). Two transition temperatures (T 1 and T 2) are well identified by analyzing the intensity change of the transient reflectivity. We found that photoexcited MIT starts emerging at T 1 as high as ∼ 230 K, in terms of a dip feature at 0.4 ps, and becomes stabilized below T 2 that is up to ∼ 180 K, associated with a negative constant after 40 ps. Our results address a phase diagram that provides a framework for the inducing of MIT through temperature and photoexcitation, and may shed light on the understanding of light-semiconductor interaction and exciton physics.

The excitonic insulator route through a dynamical phase transition induced by an optical pulse

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Brazovskii, S., E-mail: brazov@lptms.u-psud.fr [Université Paris-Saclay, LPTMS, CNRS, Univ. Paris-sud (France); Kirova, N. [Université Paris-Saclay, LPS, CNRS, Univ. Paris-sud (France)

2016-03-15

We consider a dynamical phase transition induced by a short optical pulse in a system prone to thermodynamical instability. We address the case of pumping to excitons whose density contributes directly to the order parameter. To describe both thermodynamic and dynamic effects on equal footing, we adopt a view of the excitonic insulator for the phase transition and suggest a formation of the Bose condensate for the pumped excitons. The work is motivated by experiments in donor–acceptor organic compounds with a neutral- ionic phase transition coupled to the spontaneous lattice dimerization and to charge transfer excitons. The double nature of the ensemble of excitons leads to an intricate time evolution, in particular, to macroscopic quantum oscillations from the interference between the Bose condensate of excitons and the ground state of the excitonic insulator. The coupling of excitons and the order parameter also leads to self-trapping of their wave function, akin to self-focusing in optics. The locally enhanced density of excitons can surpass a critical value to trigger the phase transformation, even if the mean density is below the required threshold. The system is stratified in domains that evolve through dynamical phase transitions and sequences of merging. The new circumstances in experiments and theory bring to life, once again, some remarkable inventions made by L.V. Keldysh.

Voltage control of metal-insulator transition and non-volatile ferroelastic switching of resistance in VOx/PMN-PT heterostructures.

Science.gov (United States)

Nan, Tianxiang; Liu, Ming; Ren, Wei; Ye, Zuo-Guang; Sun, Nian X

2014-08-04

The central challenge in realizing electronics based on strongly correlated electronic states, or 'Mottronics', lies in finding an energy efficient way to switch between the distinct collective phases with a control voltage in a reversible and reproducible manner. In this work, we demonstrate that a voltage-impulse-induced ferroelastic domain switching in the (011)-oriented 0.71Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-0.29PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) substrates allows a robust non-volatile tuning of the metal-insulator transition in the VOx films deposited onto them. In such a VOx/PMN-PT heterostructure, the unique two-step electric polarization switching covers up to 90% of the entire poled area and contributes to a homogeneous in-plane anisotropic biaxial strain, which, in turn, enables the lattice changes and results in the suppression of metal-insulator transition in the mechanically coupled VOx films by 6 K with a resistance change up to 40% over a broad range of temperature. These findings provide a framework for realizing in situ and non-volatile tuning of strain-sensitive order parameters in strongly correlated materials, and demonstrate great potentials in delivering reconfigurable, compactable, and energy-efficient electronic devices.

Pressure-induced structural changes and insulator-metal transition in layered bismuth triiodide, BiI3: a combined experimental and theoretical study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Devidas, T R; Chandra Shekar, N V; Sundar, C S; Chithaiah, P; Rao, C N R; Sorb, Y A; Bhadram, V S; Chandrabhas, N; Pal, K; Waghmare, U V

2014-01-01

Noting that BiI 3 and the well-known topological insulator (TI) Bi 2 Se 3 have the same high symmetry parent structures, and that it is desirable to find a wide-band gap TI, we determine here the effects of pressure on the structure, phonons and electronic properties of rhombohedral BiI 3 . We report a pressure-induced insulator-metal transition near 1.5 GPa, using high pressure electrical resistivity and Raman measurements. X-ray diffraction studies, as a function of pressure, reveal a structural peculiarity of the BiI 3 crystal, with a drastic drop in c/a ratio at 1.5 GPa, and a structural phase transition from rhombohedral to monoclinic structure at 8.8 GPa. Interestingly, the metallic phase, at relatively low pressures, exhibits minimal resistivity at low temperatures, similar to that in Bi 2 Se 3 . We corroborate these findings with first-principles calculations and suggest that the drop in the resistivity of BiI 3 in the 1–3 GPa range of pressure arises possibly from the appearance of an intermediate crystal phase with a lower band-gap and hexagonal crystal structure. Calculated Born effective charges reveal the presence of metallic states in the structural vicinity of rhombohedral BiI 3 . Changes in the topology of the electronic bands of BiI 3 with pressure, and a sharp decrease in the c/a ratio below 2 GPa, are shown to give rise to changes in the slope of phonon frequencies near that pressure. (paper)

Dynamic conductivity from audio to optical frequencies of semiconducting manganites approaching the metal-insulator transition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lunkenheimer, P.; Mayr, F.; Loidl, A.

2006-01-01

We report the frequency-dependent conductivity of the manganite system La 1-x Sr x MnO 3 (x≤0.2) when approaching the metal-insulator transition from the insulating side. Results from low-frequency dielectric measurements are combined with spectra in the infrared region. For low doping levels the behavior is dominated by hopping transport of localized charge carriers at low frequencies and by phononic and electronic excitations in the infrared region. For the higher Sr contents the approach of the metallic state is accompanied by the successive suppression of the hopping contribution at low frequencies and by the development of polaronic excitations in the infrared region, which finally become superimposed by a strong Drude contribution in the fully metallic state. (Abstract Copyright [2006], Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)

Pressure-induced metal-insulator transition in spinel compound CuV2S4

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Okada, H.; Koyama, K.; Hedo, M.; Uwatoko, Y.; Watanabe, K.

2008-01-01

In order to investigate the pressure effect on electrical properties of CuV 2 S 4 , we performed the electrical resistivity measurements under high pressures up to 8 GPa for a high-quality polycrystalline sample. The charge density wave (CDW) transition temperatures increase with increasing pressure. The residual resistivity rapidly increases with increasing pressure over 4 GPa, and the temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity at 8 GPa exhibits a semiconducting behavior below about 150 K, indicating that a pressure-induced metal-insulator transition occurs in CuV 2 S 4 at 8 GPa

Metal-Insulator Transition Revisited for Cold Atoms in Non-Abelian Gauge Potentials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Satija, Indubala I.; Dakin, Daniel C.; Clark, Charles W.

2006-01-01

We discuss the possibility of realizing metal-insulator transitions with ultracold atoms in two-dimensional optical lattices in the presence of artificial gauge potentials. For Abelian gauges, such transitions occur when the magnetic flux penetrating the lattice plaquette is an irrational multiple of the magnetic flux quantum. Here we present the first study of these transitions for non-Abelian U(2) gauge fields. In contrast to the Abelian case, the spectrum and localization transition in the non-Abelian case is strongly influenced by atomic momenta. In addition to determining the localization boundary, the momentum fragments the spectrum. Other key characteristics of the non-Abelian case include the absence of localization for certain states and satellite fringes around the Bragg peaks in the momentum distribution and an interesting possibility that the transition can be tuned by the atomic momenta

Metal-insulator transition in NiS.sub.2-x./sub.Se.sub.x./sub

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Kuneš, Jan; Baldassarre, L.; Schachner, B.; Rabia, K.; Kuntscher, C.A.; Korotin, D. M.; Anisimov, V.I.; McLeod, J.A.; Kurmaev, E.Z.; Moewes, A.

2010-01-01

Roč. 81, č. 3 (2010), 035112/1-035112/6 ISSN 1098-0121 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10100521 Keywords : metal-insulator transition * dynamical mean-field theory Subject RIV: BM - Solid Matter Physics ; Magnetism Impact factor: 3.772, year: 2010 http://prb.aps.org/abstract/PRB/v81/i3/e035122

Metal-insulator transition in 2D: the role of interactions and disorder

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kastrinakis, George

2007-01-01

We present a model for the metal-insulator transition in 2D, observed in the recent years. Our starting point consists of two ingredients only, which are ubiquitous in the experiments: Coulomb interactions and weak disorder spin scattering (coming from the interfaces of the heterostructures in question). In a diagramatic approach, we predict the existence of a characteristic temperature T 0 =T 0 (n,ω H ), n being the density of carriers, and ω H the Zeeman energy, below which these systems become metallic, due to the onset of strong spin-density correlations. This is in very good agreement with experiments, and corroborates the fact that varying n and ω H are equivalent ways into/out of the metallic regime. The conductivity, calculated as a function of temperature and ω H in the metallic state, compares favorably to experiment. Moreover, we give an explicit expression for the conventional weak disorder contributions to the conductivity in the frame of our model. We comment on the nature of the transition, we calculate the specific heat of the system and we discuss the fate of the metallic state in the limit of zero temperature

Photoinduced Coherent Spin Fluctuation in Primary Dynamics of Insulator to Metal Transition in Perovskite Cobalt Oxide

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Arima T.

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Coherent spin fluctuation was detected in the photoinduced Mott insulator-metal transition in perovskite cobalt oxide by using 3 optical-cycle infrared pulse. Such coherent spin fluctuation is driven by the perovskite distortion changing orbital gap.

High pressure metallization of Mott Insulators: Magnetic, structural and electronic properties

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pasternak, M.P.; Hearne, G.; Sterer, E.; Taylor, R.D.; Jeanloz, R.

1993-01-01

High pressure studies of the insulator-metal transition in the (TM)I 2 (TM = V, Fe, Co and Ni) compounds are described. Those divalent transition-metal iodides are structurally isomorphous and classified as Mott Insulators. Resistivity, X-ray diffraction and Moessbauer Spectroscopy were employed to investigate the electronic, structural, and magnetic properties as a function of pressure both on the highly correlated and on the metallic regimes

La interstitial defect-induced insulator-metal transition in the oxide heterostructures LaAl O3 /SrTi O3

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Jun; Yang, Ming; Feng, Yuan Ping; Rusydi, Andrivo

2017-11-01

Perovskite oxide interfaces have attracted tremendous research interest for their fundamental physics and promising all-oxide electronic applications. Here, based on first-principles calculations, we propose a surface La interstitial promoted interface insulator-metal transition in LaAl O3 /SrTi O3 (110). Compared with surface oxygen vacancies, which play a determining role on the insulator-metal transition of LaAl O3 /SrTi O3 (001) interfaces, we find that surface La interstitials can be more experimentally realistic and accessible for manipulation and more stable in an ambient atmospheric environment. Interestingly, these surface La interstitials also induce significant spin-splitting states with a Ti dy z/dx z character at a conducting LaAl O3 /SrTi O3 (110) interface. On the other hand, for insulating LaAl O3 /SrTi O3 (110) (<4 unit cells LaAl O3 thickness), a distortion between La (Al) and O atoms is found at the LaAl O3 side, partially compensating the polarization divergence. Our results reveal the origin of the metal-insulator transition in LaAl O3 /SrTi O3 (110) heterostructures, and also shed light on the manipulation of the superior properties of LaAl O3 /SrTi O3 (110) for different possibilities in electronic and magnetic applications.

Oxygen pressure manipulations on the metal-insulator transition characteristics of highly (011)-oriented vanadium dioxide films grown by magnetron sputtering

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yu Qian; Li Wenwu; Duan Zhihua; Hu Zhigao; Chu Junhao; Liang Jiran; Chen Hongda; Liu Jian

2013-01-01

The metal-insulator transition behaviour of vanadium dioxide (VO 2 ) films grown at different oxygen pressures is investigated. With the aid of temperature-dependent electrical and infrared transmittance experiments, it is found that the transition temperature in the heating process goes up with increasing argon-oxygen ratio, whereas the one in the cooling process shows an inverse variation trend. It is found that the hysteresis width of the phase transition is narrowed at a lower argon-oxygen ratio because the defects introduced by excess oxygen lower the energy requirement of transformation. Furthermore, the defects reduce the forbidden gap of the VO 2 system due to the generation of a V 5+ ion. The present results are valuable for the achievement of VO 2 -based optoelectronic devices.

On the energy scale involved in the metal to insulator transition of quadruple perovskite EuCu3Fe4O12: infrared spectroscopy and ab-initio calculations.

Science.gov (United States)

Brière, B; Kalinko, A; Yamada, I; Roy, P; Brubach, J B; Sopracase, R; Zaghrioui, M; Phuoc, V Ta

2016-06-27

Optical measurements were carried out by infrared spectroscopy on AA'3B4O12 A-site ordered quadruple perovskite EuCu3Fe4O12 (microscopic sample) as function of temperature. At 240 K (=TMI), EuCu3Fe4O12 undergoes a very abrupt metal to insulator transition, a paramagnetic to antiferromagnetic transition and an isostructural transformation with an abrupt large volume expansion. Above TMI, optical conductivity reveals a bad metal behavior and below TMI, an insulating phase with an optical gap of 125 meV is observed. As temperature is decreased, a large and abrupt spectral weight transfer toward an energy scale larger than 1 eV is detected. Concurrently, electronic structure calculations for both high and low temperature phases were compared to the optical conductivity results giving a precise pattern of the transition. Density of states and computed optical conductivity analysis identified Cu3dxy, Fe3d and O2p orbitals as principal actors of the spectral weight transfer. The present work constitutes a first step to shed light on EuCu3Fe4O12 electronic properties with optical measurements and ab-initio calculations.

Synchronization of pairwise-coupled, identical, relaxation oscillators based on metal-insulator phase transition devices: A model study

Science.gov (United States)

Parihar, Abhinav; Shukla, Nikhil; Datta, Suman; Raychowdhury, Arijit

2015-02-01

Computing with networks of synchronous oscillators has attracted wide-spread attention as novel materials and device topologies have enabled realization of compact, scalable and low-power coupled oscillatory systems. Of particular interest are compact and low-power relaxation oscillators that have been recently demonstrated using MIT (metal-insulator-transition) devices using properties of correlated oxides. Further the computational capability of pairwise coupled relaxation oscillators has also been shown to outperform traditional Boolean digital logic circuits. This paper presents an analysis of the dynamics and synchronization of a system of two such identical coupled relaxation oscillators implemented with MIT devices. We focus on two implementations of the oscillator: (a) a D-D configuration where complementary MIT devices (D) are connected in series to provide oscillations and (b) a D-R configuration where it is composed of a resistor (R) in series with a voltage-triggered state changing MIT device (D). The MIT device acts like a hysteresis resistor with different resistances in the two different states. The synchronization dynamics of such a system has been analyzed with purely charge based coupling using a resistive (RC) and a capacitive (CC) element in parallel. It is shown that in a D-D configuration symmetric, identical and capacitively coupled relaxation oscillator system synchronizes to an anti-phase locking state, whereas when coupled resistively the system locks in phase. Further, we demonstrate that for certain range of values of RC and CC, a bistable system is possible which can have potential applications in associative computing. In D-R configuration, we demonstrate the existence of rich dynamics including non-monotonic flows and complex phase relationship governed by the ratios of the coupling impedance. Finally, the developed theoretical formulations have been shown to explain experimentally measured waveforms of such pairwise coupled

Phase transition study in strongly correlated VO{sub 2} based sensing systems

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Simo, A., E-mail: alinesimo.aline@gmail.com [UNESCO-UNISA Africa Chair in Nanoscience’s/Nanotechnology, College of Graduate Studies, University of South Africa, Muckleneuk ridge, P.O. Box 392, Pretoria (South Africa); Nanosciences African Network (NANOAFNET), iThemba LABS-National Research Foundation, 1 Old Faure road, Somerset West 7129, P.O. Box 722, Somerset West, Western Cape Province (South Africa); Kaviyarasu, K. [UNESCO-UNISA Africa Chair in Nanoscience’s/Nanotechnology, College of Graduate Studies, University of South Africa, Muckleneuk ridge, P.O. Box 392, Pretoria (South Africa); Nanosciences African Network (NANOAFNET), iThemba LABS-National Research Foundation, 1 Old Faure road, Somerset West 7129, P.O. Box 722, Somerset West, Western Cape Province (South Africa); Mwakikunga, B. [Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, P.O. Box 395, Pretoria 0001 (South Africa); Madjoe, R. [Physics Department, University of Western Cape, 7535 Belville Cape Town (South Africa); Gibaud, A. [Laboratoire de Physique de l’Etat Condensé, Université du Maine Faculte des sciences, UPRESA 6087, 72085, Le Mans Cedex 9 (France); Maaza, M. [UNESCO-UNISA Africa Chair in Nanoscience’s/Nanotechnology, College of Graduate Studies, University of South Africa, Muckleneuk ridge, P.O. Box 392, Pretoria (South Africa); Nanosciences African Network (NANOAFNET), iThemba LABS-National Research Foundation, 1 Old Faure road, Somerset West 7129, P.O. Box 722, Somerset West, Western Cape Province (South Africa)

2017-04-15

Highlights: • At 230 °C for about 48 h to prepare successfully VO{sub 2} nanobelts. • 1D shows good sensing performance due to the large active surface of the material. • The good selectivity of methanol compared to acetone and isopropanol. • VOC compounds was observed at room temperature. - Abstract: Intermediate phase monoclinic M2 was observed by inducing in situ X-ray thermo diffraction on VO{sub 2} (M) nanoplatelets. The solid-solid phase transition occurs at around 65 °C assisted with the percolative transition metal-insulator. The existence of an intermediate crystalline phase with room temperature insulator phase and high temperature metallic phase across MIT in VO{sub 2} could be of relevance to understand structural contributions to the phase transition dynamics. In addition, pellet of VO{sub 2} nanostructures have shown to present good sensing properties to various alcohols vapors at room temperature and good selectivity of methanol with 5.54% sensitivity and limit detection below 5 ppm, compared to isopropanol 3.2% and acetone 2.4% respectively.

Ultrafast dynamics during the photoinduced phase transition in VO2

Science.gov (United States)

Wegkamp, Daniel; Stähler, Julia

2015-12-01

The phase transition of VO2 from a monoclinic insulator to a rutile metal, which occurs thermally at TC = 340 K, can also be driven by strong photoexcitation. The ultrafast dynamics during this photoinduced phase transition (PIPT) have attracted great scientific attention for decades, as this approach promises to answer the question of whether the insulator-to-metal (IMT) transition is caused by electronic or crystallographic processes through disentanglement of the different contributions in the time domain. We review our recent results achieved by femtosecond time-resolved photoelectron, optical, and coherent phonon spectroscopy and discuss them within the framework of a selection of latest, complementary studies of the ultrafast PIPT in VO2. We show that the population change of electrons and holes caused by photoexcitation launches a highly non-equilibrium plasma phase characterized by enhanced screening due to quasi-free carriers and followed by two branches of non-equilibrium dynamics: (i) an instantaneous (within the time resolution) collapse of the insulating gap that precedes charge carrier relaxation and significant ionic motion and (ii) an instantaneous lattice potential symmetry change that represents the onset of the crystallographic phase transition through ionic motion on longer timescales. We discuss the interconnection between these two non-thermal pathways with particular focus on the meaning of the critical fluence of the PIPT in different types of experiments. Based on this, we conclude that the PIPT threshold identified in optical experiments is most probably determined by the excitation density required to drive the lattice potential change rather than the IMT. These considerations suggest that the IMT can be driven by weaker excitation, predicting a transiently metallic, monoclinic state of VO2 that is not stabilized by the non-thermal structural transition and, thus, decays on ultrafast timescales.

Magnetic Excitations across the Metal-Insulator Transition in the Pyrochlore Iridate Eu2Ir2O7

Science.gov (United States)

Chun, Sae Hwan; Yuan, Bo; Casa, Diego; Kim, Jungho; Kim, Chang-Yong; Tian, Zhaoming; Qiu, Yang; Nakatsuji, Satoru; Kim, Young-June

2018-04-01

We report a resonant inelastic x-ray scattering study of the magnetic excitation spectrum in a highly insulating Eu2 Ir2 O7 single crystal that exhibits a metal-insulator transition at TMI=111 (7 ) K . A propagating magnon mode with a 20 meV bandwidth and a 28 meV magnon gap is found in the excitation spectrum at 7 K, which is expected in the all-in-all-out magnetically ordered state. This magnetic excitation exhibits substantial softening as the temperature is raised towards TMI and turns into a highly damped excitation in the paramagnetic phase. Remarkably, the softening occurs throughout the whole Brillouin zone including the zone boundary. This observation is inconsistent with the magnon renormalization expected in a local moment system and indicates that the strength of the electron correlation in Eu2 Ir2 O7 is only moderate, so that electron itinerancy should be taken into account in describing its magnetism.

Magnetoconductance of amorphous Yx-Si1-x alloys near the metal-insulator transition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sanquer, M.; Tourbot, R.; Boucher, B.

1989-01-01

We have performed magnetoresistance experiments across the Metal-Insulator transition in amorphous Y x -Si 1-x alloys using very high fields (H = 40T) and very low temperatures (T = 0.05K). Different and unusual behaviours are observed and can be explained assuming that the electron-electron interaction contribution dominates at low fields and localization corrections appears at very high fields. This is the opposite situation compared to usual weak localization regime

Theory of strain-controlled magnetotransport and stabilization of the ferromagnetic insulating phase in manganite thin films.

Science.gov (United States)

Mukherjee, Anamitra; Cole, William S; Woodward, Patrick; Randeria, Mohit; Trivedi, Nandini

2013-04-12

We show that applying strain on half-doped manganites makes it possible to tune the system to the proximity of a metal-insulator transition and thereby generate a colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) response. This phase competition not only allows control of CMR in ferromagnetic metallic manganites but can be used to generate CMR response in otherwise robust insulators at half-doping. Further, from our realistic microscopic model of strain and magnetotransport calculations within the Kubo formalism, we demonstrate a striking result of strain engineering that, under tensile strain, a ferromagnetic charge-ordered insulator, previously inaccessible to experiments, becomes stable.

Phase separation in the nonequilibrium Verwey transition in magnetite

Science.gov (United States)

Randi, F.; Vergara, I.; Novelli, F.; Esposito, M.; Dell'Angela, M.; Brabers, V. A. M.; Metcalf, P.; Kukreja, R.; Dürr, H. A.; Fausti, D.; Grüninger, M.; Parmigiani, F.

2016-02-01

We present equilibrium and out-of-equilibrium studies of the Verwey transition in magnetite. In the equilibrium optical conductivity, we find a steplike change at the phase transition for photon energies below about 2 eV. The possibility of triggering a nonequilibrium transient metallic state in insulating magnetite by photo excitation was recently demonstrated by an x-ray study. Here we report a full characterization of the optical properties in the visible frequency range across the nonequilibrium phase transition. Our analysis of the spectral features is based on a detailed description of the equilibrium properties. The out-of-equilibrium optical data bear the initial electronic response associated to localized photoexcitation, the occurrence of phase separation, and the transition to a transient metallic phase for excitation density larger than a critical value. This allows us to identify the electronic nature of the transient state, to unveil the phase transition dynamics, and to study the consequences of phase separation on the reflectivity, suggesting a spectroscopic feature that may be generally linked to out-of-equilibrium phase separation.

Strongly correlated electron systems and neutron scattering. Magnetism, superconductivity, structural phase transition

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Katano, Susumu [Japan Atomic Energy Research Inst., Tokai, Ibaraki (Japan). Tokai Research Establishment

1998-03-01

Neutron scattering experiments in our group on strongly correlated electron systems are reviewed Metal-insulator transitions caused by structural phase transitions in (La{sub 1-x}Sr{sub x}) MnO{sub 3}, a novel magnetic transition in the CeP compound, correlations between antiferromagnetism and superconductivity in UPd{sub 2}Al{sub 3} and so forth are discussed. Here, in this note, the phase transition of Mn-oxides was mainly described. (author)

On the thermodynamics of phase transitions in metal hydrides

Science.gov (United States)

di Vita, Andrea

2012-02-01

Metal hydrides are solutions of hydrogen in a metal, where phase transitions may occur depending on temperature, pressure etc. We apply Le Chatelier's principle of thermodynamics to a particular phase transition in TiH x , which can approximately be described as a second-order phase transition. We show that the fluctuations of the order parameter correspond to fluctuations both of the density of H+ ions and of the distance between adjacent H+ ions. Moreover, as the system approaches the transition and the correlation radius increases, we show -with the help of statistical mechanics-that the statistical weight of modes involving a large number of H+ ions (`collective modes') increases sharply, in spite of the fact that the Boltzmann factor of each collective mode is exponentially small. As a result, the interaction of the H+ ions with collective modes makes a tiny suprathermal fraction of the H+ population appear. Our results hold for similar transitions in metal deuterides, too. A violation of an -insofar undisputed-upper bound on hydrogen loading follows.

Atomic Origins of Monoclinic-Tetragonal (Rutile) Phase Transition in Doped VO 2 Nanowires

KAUST Repository

Asayesh-Ardakani, Hasti

2015-10-12

There has been long-standing interest in tuning the metal-insulator phase transition in vanadium dioxide (VO) via the addition of chemical dopants. However, the underlying mechanisms by which doping elements regulate the phase transition in VO are poorly understood. Taking advantage of aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy, we reveal the atomistic origins by which tungsten (W) dopants influence the phase transition in single crystalline WVO nanowires. Our atomically resolved strain maps clearly show the localized strain normal to the (122¯) lattice planes of the low W-doped monoclinic structure (insulator). These strain maps demonstrate how anisotropic localized stress created by dopants in the monoclinic structure accelerates the phase transition and lead to relaxation of structure in tetragonal form. In contrast, the strain distribution in the high W-doped VO structure is relatively uniform as a result of transition to tetragonal (metallic) phase. The directional strain gradients are furthermore corroborated by density functional theory calculations that show the energetic consequences of distortions to the local structure. These findings pave the roadmap for lattice-stress engineering of the MIT behavior in strongly correlated materials for specific applications such as ultrafast electronic switches and electro-optical sensors.

Atomic Origins of Monoclinic-Tetragonal (Rutile) Phase Transition in Doped VO 2 Nanowires

KAUST Repository

Asayesh-Ardakani, Hasti; Nie, Anmin; Marley, Peter M.; Zhu, Yihan; Phillips, Patrick J.; Singh, Sujay; Mashayek, Farzad; Sambandamurthy, Ganapathy; Low, Ke Bin; Klie, Robert F.; Banerjee, Sarbajit; Odegard, Gregory M.; Shahbazian-Yassar, Reza

2015-01-01

There has been long-standing interest in tuning the metal-insulator phase transition in vanadium dioxide (VO) via the addition of chemical dopants. However, the underlying mechanisms by which doping elements regulate the phase transition in VO are poorly understood. Taking advantage of aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy, we reveal the atomistic origins by which tungsten (W) dopants influence the phase transition in single crystalline WVO nanowires. Our atomically resolved strain maps clearly show the localized strain normal to the (122¯) lattice planes of the low W-doped monoclinic structure (insulator). These strain maps demonstrate how anisotropic localized stress created by dopants in the monoclinic structure accelerates the phase transition and lead to relaxation of structure in tetragonal form. In contrast, the strain distribution in the high W-doped VO structure is relatively uniform as a result of transition to tetragonal (metallic) phase. The directional strain gradients are furthermore corroborated by density functional theory calculations that show the energetic consequences of distortions to the local structure. These findings pave the roadmap for lattice-stress engineering of the MIT behavior in strongly correlated materials for specific applications such as ultrafast electronic switches and electro-optical sensors.

Mg-doped VO2 nanoparticles: hydrothermal synthesis, enhanced visible transmittance and decreased metal-insulator transition temperature.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Jiadong; Gao, Yanfeng; Liu, Xinling; Chen, Zhang; Dai, Lei; Cao, Chuanxiang; Luo, Hongjie; Kanahira, Minoru; Sun, Chao; Yan, Liuming

2013-05-28

This paper reports the successful preparation of Mg-doped VO2 nanoparticles via hydrothermal synthesis. The metal-insulator transition temperature (T(c)) decreased by approximately 2 K per at% Mg. The Tc decreased to 54 °C with 7.0 at% dopant. The composite foils made from Mg-doped VO2 particles displayed excellent visible transmittance (up to 54.2%) and solar modulation ability (up to 10.6%). In addition, the absorption edge blue-shifted from 490 nm to 440 nm at a Mg content of 3.8 at%, representing a widened optical band gap from 2.0 eV for pure VO2 to 2.4 eV at 3.8 at% doping. As a result, the colour of the Mg-doped films was modified to increase their brightness and lighten the yellow colour over that of the undoped-VO2 film. A first principle calculation was conducted to understand how dopants affect the optical, Mott phase transition and structural properties of VO2.

Electric controlling of surface metal-insulator transition in the doped BaTiO3 film

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wei Xun

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Based on first-principles calculations, the BaTiO3(BTO film with local La-doping is studied. For a selected concentration and position of doping, the surface metal-insulator transition occurs under the applied electric field, and the domain appears near the surface for both bipolar states. Furthermore, for the insulated surface state, i.e., the downward polarization state in the doped film, the gradient bandgap structure is achieved, which favors the absorption of solar energy. Our investigation can provide an alternative avenue in modification of surface property and surface screening effect in polar materials.

Dynamic Test Method Based on Strong Electromagnetic Pulse for Electromagnetic Shielding Materials with Field-Induced Insulator-Conductor Phase Transition

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yun; Zhao, Min; Wang, Qingguo

2018-01-01

In order to measure the pulse shielding performance of materials with the characteristic of field-induced insulator-conductor phase transition when materials are used for electromagnetic shielding, a dynamic test method was proposed based on a coaxial fixture. Experiment system was built by square pulse source, coaxial cable, coaxial fixture, attenuator, and oscilloscope and insulating components. S11 parameter of the test system was obtained, which suggested that the working frequency ranges from 300 KHz to 7.36 GHz. Insulating performance is good enough to avoid discharge between conductors when material samples is exposed in the strong electromagnetic pulse field up to 831 kV/m. This method is suitable for materials with annular shape, certain thickness and the characteristic of field-induced insulator-conductor phase transition to get their shielding performances of strong electromagnetic pulse.

Metal-insulator transitions in IZO, IGZO, and ITZO films

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Makise, Kazumasa, E-mail: makise@nict.go.jp [National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Kobe 651-2492 (Japan); Hidaka, Kazuya; Ezaki, Syohei; Asano, Takayuki; Shinozaki, Bunju [Department of Physics, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 810-8560 (Japan); Tomai, Shigekazu; Yano, Koki; Nakamura, Hiroaki [Central Research Laboratories, Idemitsu Kosan Co. Ltd, Chiba 299-0293 (Japan)

2014-10-21

In this study, we measured the low-temperature resistivity of amorphous two- and three-dimensional (2D and 3D) indium-zinc oxide, indium-gallium-zinc oxide, and indium-tin-zinc oxide films with a wide range of carrier densities. To determine their critical characteristics at the metal-insulator transition (MIT), we used the Ioffe–Regel criterion. We found that the MIT occurs in a narrow range between k{sub F}ℓ =0.13 and k{sub F}ℓ =0.25, where k{sub F} and ℓ are the Fermi wave number and electron mean free path, respectively. For films in the insulating region, we analyzed ρ(T) using a procedure proposed by Zabrodskii and Zinov'eva. This analysis confirmed the occurrence of Mott and Efros–Shklovskii (ES) variable-range hopping. The materials studied show crossover behavior from exp(T{sub Mott}/T){sup 1/4} or exp(T{sub Mott}/T){sup 1/3} for Mott hopping conduction to exp(T{sub ES}/T){sup 1/2} for ES hopping conduction with decreasing temperature. For both 2D and 3D materials, we found that the relationship between T{sub Mott} and T{sub ES} satisfies T{sub ES}∝T{sub Mott}{sup 2/3}.

Wide gap Chern Mott insulating phases achieved by design

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Hongli; Gangopadhyay, Shruba; Köksal, Okan; Pentcheva, Rossitza; Pickett, Warren E.

2017-12-01

Quantum anomalous Hall insulators, which display robust boundary charge and spin currents categorized in terms of a bulk topological invariant known as the Chern number (Thouless et al Phys. Rev. Lett. 49, 405-408 (1982)), provide the quantum Hall anomalous effect without an applied magnetic field. Chern insulators are attracting interest both as a novel electronic phase and for their novel and potentially useful boundary charge and spin currents. Honeycomb lattice systems such as we discuss here, occupied by heavy transition-metal ions, have been proposed as Chern insulators, but finding a concrete example has been challenging due to an assortment of broken symmetry phases that thwart the topological character. Building on accumulated knowledge of the behavior of the 3d series, we tune spin-orbit and interaction strength together with strain to design two Chern insulator systems with bandgaps up to 130 meV and Chern numbers C = -1 and C = 2. We find, in this class, that a trade-off between larger spin-orbit coupling and strong interactions leads to a larger gap, whereas the stronger spin-orbit coupling correlates with the larger magnitude of the Hall conductivity. Symmetry lowering in the course of structural relaxation hampers obtaining quantum anomalous Hall character, as pointed out previously; there is only mild structural symmetry breaking of the bilayer in these robust Chern phases. Recent growth of insulating, magnetic phases in closely related materials with this orientation supports the likelihood that synthesis and exploitation will follow.

Propagation Characteristics of Multilayer Hybrid Insulator-Metal-Insulator and Metal-Insulator-Metal Plasmonic Waveguides

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Talafi Noghani

2014-02-01

Full Text Available Propagation characteristics of symmetrical and asymmetrical multilayer hybrid insulator-metal-insulator (HIMI and metal-insulator-metal (HMIM plasmonic slab waveguides are investigated using the transfer matrix method. Propagation length (Lp and spatial length (Ls are used as two figures of merit to qualitate the plasmonic waveguides. Symmetrical structures are shown to be more performant (having higher Lp and lower Ls, nevertheless it is shown that usage of asymmetrical geometry could compensate for the performance degradation in practically realized HIMI waveguides with different substrate materials. It is found that HMIM slab waveguide could support almost long-range subdiffraction plasmonic modes at dimensions lower than the spatial length of the HIMI slab waveguide.

Hartree-Fock study of the Anderson metal-insulator transition in the presence of Coulomb interaction: Two types of mobility edges and their multifractal scaling exponents

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Hyun-Jung; Kim, Ki-Seok

2018-04-01

We investigate the role of Coulomb interaction in the multifractality of Anderson metal-insulator transition, where the Coulomb interaction is treated within the Hartree-Fock approximation, but disorder effects are taken into account exactly. An innovative technical aspect in our simulation is to utilize the Ewald-sum technique, which allows us to introduce the long-range nature of the Coulomb interaction into Hartree-Fock self-consistent equations of order parameters more accurately. This numerical simulation reproduces the Altshuler-Aronov correction in a metallic state and the Efros-Shklovskii pseudogap in an insulating phase, where the density of states ρ (ω ) is evaluated in three dimensions. Approaching the quantum critical point of a metal-insulator transition from either the metallic or insulting phase, we find that the density of states is given by ρ (ω ) ˜|ω| 1 /2 , which determines one critical exponent of the McMillan-Shklovskii scaling theory. Our main result is to evaluate the eigenfunction multifractal scaling exponent αq, given by the Legendre transformation of the fractal dimension τq, which characterizes the scaling behavior of the inverse participation ratio with respect to the system size L . Our multifractal analysis leads us to identify two kinds of mobility edges, one of which occurs near the Fermi energy and the other of which appears at a high energy, where the density of states at the Fermi energy shows the Coulomb-gap feature. We observe that the multifractal exponent at the high-energy mobility edge remains to be almost identical to that of the Anderson localization transition in the absence of Coulomb interactions. On the other hand, we find that the multifractal exponent near the Fermi energy is more enhanced than that at the high-energy mobility edge, suspected to result from interaction effects. However, both the multifractal exponents do not change even if the strength of the Coulomb interaction varies. We also show that the

Interaction between extended and localized electronic states in the region of the metal to insulator transition in semiconductor alloys

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Teubert, Joerg

2008-07-01

The first part of this work addresses the influence of those isovalent localized states on the electronic properties of (B,Ga,In)As. Most valuable were the measurements under hydrostatic pressure that revealed a pressure induced metal-insulator transition. One of the main ideas in this context is the trapping of carriers in localized B-related cluster states that appear in the bandgap at high pressure. The key conclusion that can be drawn from the experimental results is that boron atoms seem to have the character of isovalent electron traps, rendering boron as the first known isovalent trap induced by cationic substitution. In the second part, thermoelectric properties of (B,Ga,In)As and (Ga,In)(N,As) are studied. It was found that although the electric-field driven electronic transport in n-type (Ga,In)(N,As) and (B,Ga,In)As differs considerably from that of n-type GaAs, the temperature-gradient driven electronic transport is very similar for the three semiconductors, despite distinct differences in the conduction band structure of (Ga,In)(N,As) and (B,Ga,In)As compared to GaAs. The third part addresses the influence of magnetic interactions on the transport properties near the metal-insulator transition (MIT). Here, two scenarios are considered: Firstly the focus is set on ZnMnSe:Cl, a representative of so called dilute magnetic semiconductors (DMS). In this material Mn(2+) ions provide a large magnetic moment due to their half filled inner 3d-shell. It is shown that magnetic interactions in conjunction with disorder effects are responsible for the unusual magnetotransport behavior found in this and other II-Mn-VI semiconductor alloys. In the second scenario, a different magnetic compound, namely InSb:Mn, is of interest. It is a representative of the III-Mn-V DMS, where the magnetic impurity Mn serves both as the source of a large localized magnetic moment and as the source of a loosely bound hole due to its acceptor character. Up to now, little is known about

Interaction between extended and localized electronic states in the region of the metal to insulator transition in semiconductor alloys

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Teubert, Joerg

2008-01-01

The first part of this work addresses the influence of those isovalent localized states on the electronic properties of (B,Ga,In)As. Most valuable were the measurements under hydrostatic pressure that revealed a pressure induced metal-insulator transition. One of the main ideas in this context is the trapping of carriers in localized B-related cluster states that appear in the bandgap at high pressure. The key conclusion that can be drawn from the experimental results is that boron atoms seem to have the character of isovalent electron traps, rendering boron as the first known isovalent trap induced by cationic substitution. In the second part, thermoelectric properties of (B,Ga,In)As and (Ga,In)(N,As) are studied. It was found that although the electric-field driven electronic transport in n-type (Ga,In)(N,As) and (B,Ga,In)As differs considerably from that of n-type GaAs, the temperature-gradient driven electronic transport is very similar for the three semiconductors, despite distinct differences in the conduction band structure of (Ga,In)(N,As) and (B,Ga,In)As compared to GaAs. The third part addresses the influence of magnetic interactions on the transport properties near the metal-insulator transition (MIT). Here, two scenarios are considered: Firstly the focus is set on ZnMnSe:Cl, a representative of so called dilute magnetic semiconductors (DMS). In this material Mn(2+) ions provide a large magnetic moment due to their half filled inner 3d-shell. It is shown that magnetic interactions in conjunction with disorder effects are responsible for the unusual magnetotransport behavior found in this and other II-Mn-VI semiconductor alloys. In the second scenario, a different magnetic compound, namely InSb:Mn, is of interest. It is a representative of the III-Mn-V DMS, where the magnetic impurity Mn serves both as the source of a large localized magnetic moment and as the source of a loosely bound hole due to its acceptor character. Up to now, little is known about

Metal-insulator transition in AlxGa1-xAs/GaAs heterostructures with large spacer width

Science.gov (United States)

Gold, A.

1991-10-01

Analytical results are presented for the mobility of a two-dimensional electron gas in a heterostructure with a thick spacer layer α. Due to multiple-scattering effects a metal-insulator transition occurs at a critical electron density Nc=N1/2i/(4π1/2α) (Ni is the impurity density). The transport mean free path l(t) (calculated in Born approximation) at the metal-insulator transition is l(t)c=2α. A localization criterion in terms of the renormalized single-particle mean free path l(sr) is presented: kFcl(sr)c=(1/2)1/2 (kFc is the Fermi wave number at the critical density). I compare the theoretical results with recent experimental results found in AlxGa1-xAs/GaAs heterostructures with large spacer width: 1200<α<2800 Å. Remote impurity doping and homogeneous background doping are considered. The only fitting parameter used for the theoretical results is the background doping density NB=6×1013 cm-3. My theory is in fair agreement with the experimental results.

Atomic Origins of Monoclinic-Tetragonal (Rutile) Phase Transition in Doped VO2 Nanowires.

Science.gov (United States)

Asayesh-Ardakani, Hasti; Nie, Anmin; Marley, Peter M; Zhu, Yihan; Phillips, Patrick J; Singh, Sujay; Mashayek, Farzad; Sambandamurthy, Ganapathy; Low, Ke-Bin; Klie, Robert F; Banerjee, Sarbajit; Odegard, Gregory M; Shahbazian-Yassar, Reza

2015-11-11

There has been long-standing interest in tuning the metal-insulator phase transition in vanadium dioxide (VO2) via the addition of chemical dopants. However, the underlying mechanisms by which doping elements regulate the phase transition in VO2 are poorly understood. Taking advantage of aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy, we reveal the atomistic origins by which tungsten (W) dopants influence the phase transition in single crystalline WxV1-xO2 nanowires. Our atomically resolved strain maps clearly show the localized strain normal to the (122̅) lattice planes of the low W-doped monoclinic structure (insulator). These strain maps demonstrate how anisotropic localized stress created by dopants in the monoclinic structure accelerates the phase transition and lead to relaxation of structure in tetragonal form. In contrast, the strain distribution in the high W-doped VO2 structure is relatively uniform as a result of transition to tetragonal (metallic) phase. The directional strain gradients are furthermore corroborated by density functional theory calculations that show the energetic consequences of distortions to the local structure. These findings pave the roadmap for lattice-stress engineering of the MIT behavior in strongly correlated materials for specific applications such as ultrafast electronic switches and electro-optical sensors.

Correlated effective field theory in transition metal compounds

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mukhopadhyay, Subhasis; Chatterjee, Ibha

2004-01-01

Mean field theory is good enough to study the physical properties at higher temperatures and in higher dimensions. It explains the critical phenomena in a restricted sense. Near the critical temperatures, when fluctuations become important, it may not give the correct results. Similarly in low dimensions, the correlations become important and the mean field theory seems to be inadequate to explain the physical phenomena. At low-temperatures too, the quantum correlations become important and these effects are to be treated in an appropriate way. In 1974, Prof. M.E. Lines of Bell Laboratories, developed a theory which goes beyond the mean field theory and is known as the correlated effective field (CEF) theory. It takes into account the fluctuations in a semiempirical way. Lines and his collaborators used this theory to explain the short-range correlations and their anisotropy in the paramagnetic phase. Later Suzuki et al., Chatterjee and Desai, Mukhopadhyay and Chatterjee applied this theory to the magnetically ordered phase and a tremendous success of the theory has been found in real systems. The success of the CEF theory is discussed in this review. In order to highlight the success of this theory, earlier effective field theories and their improvements over mean field theories e.g., Bethe-Peierls-Weiss method, reaction field approximation, etc., are also discussed in this review for completeness. The beauty of the CEF theory is that it is mean field-like, but captures the essential physics of real systems to a great extent. However, this is a weak correlated theory and as a result is inappropriate for the metallic phase when strong correlations become important. In recent times, transition metal oxides become important due to the discovery of the high-temperature superconductivity and the colossal magnetoresistance phenomena. These oxides seem to be Mott insulators and undergo an insulator to metal transition by applying magnetic field, pressure and by changing

Valley polarized quantum Hall effect and topological insulator phase transitions in silicene

KAUST Repository

Tahir, M.

2013-01-25

The electronic properties of silicene are distinct from both the conventional two dimensional electron gas and the famous graphene due to strong spin orbit interaction and the buckled structure. Silicene has the potential to overcome limitations encountered for graphene, in particular the zero band gap and weak spin orbit interaction. We demonstrate a valley polarized quantum Hall effect and topological insulator phase transitions. We use the Kubo formalism to discuss the Hall conductivity and address the longitudinal conductivity for elastic impurity scattering in the first Born approximation. We show that the combination of an electric field with intrinsic spin orbit interaction leads to quantum phase transitions at the charge neutrality point, providing a tool to experimentally tune the topological state. Silicene constitutes a model system for exploring the spin and valley physics not accessible in graphene due to the small spin orbit interaction.

Size-dependent single electron transfer and semi-metal-to-insulator transitions in molecular metal oxide electronics

Science.gov (United States)

Balliou, Angelika; Bouroushian, Mirtat; Douvas, Antonios M.; Skoulatakis, George; Kennou, Stella; Glezos, Nikos

2018-07-01

All-inorganic self-arranged molecular transition metal oxide hyperstructures based on polyoxometalate molecules (POMs) are fabricated and tested as electronically tunable components in emerging electronic devices. POM hyperstructures reveal great potential as charging nodes of tunable charging level for molecular memories and as enhancers of interfacial electron/hole injection for photovoltaic stacks. STM, UPS, UV–vis spectroscopy and AFM measurements show that this functionality stems from the films’ ability to structurally tune their HOMO–LUMO levels and electron localization length at room temperature. By adapting POM nanocluster size in solution, self-doping and current modulation of four orders of magnitude is monitored on a single nanocluster on SiO2 at voltages as low as 3 Volt. Structurally driven insulator-to-semi-metal transitions and size-dependent current regulation through single electron tunneling are demonstrated and examined with respect to the stereochemical and electronic structure of the molecular entities. This extends the value of self-assembly as a tool for correlation length and electronic properties tuning and demonstrate POM hyperstructures’ plausibility for on-chip molecular electronics operative at room temperature.

Size-dependent single electron transfer and semi-metal-to-insulator transitions in molecular metal oxide electronics.

Science.gov (United States)

Balliou, Angelika; Bouroushian, Mirtat; Douvas, Antonios M; Skoulatakis, George; Kennou, Stella; Glezos, Nikos

2018-07-06

All-inorganic self-arranged molecular transition metal oxide hyperstructures based on polyoxometalate molecules (POMs) are fabricated and tested as electronically tunable components in emerging electronic devices. POM hyperstructures reveal great potential as charging nodes of tunable charging level for molecular memories and as enhancers of interfacial electron/hole injection for photovoltaic stacks. STM, UPS, UV-vis spectroscopy and AFM measurements show that this functionality stems from the films' ability to structurally tune their HOMO-LUMO levels and electron localization length at room temperature. By adapting POM nanocluster size in solution, self-doping and current modulation of four orders of magnitude is monitored on a single nanocluster on SiO 2 at voltages as low as 3 Volt. Structurally driven insulator-to-semi-metal transitions and size-dependent current regulation through single electron tunneling are demonstrated and examined with respect to the stereochemical and electronic structure of the molecular entities. This extends the value of self-assembly as a tool for correlation length and electronic properties tuning and demonstrate POM hyperstructures' plausibility for on-chip molecular electronics operative at room temperature.

Critical metal-insulator transition and divergence in a two-particle irreducible vertex in disordered and interacting electron systems

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Janiš, Václav; Pokorný, Vladislav

2014-01-01

Roč. 90, č. 4 (2014), "045143-1"-"045143-11" ISSN 1098-0121 Institutional support: RVO:68378271 Keywords : metal-insulator transition * disordered and interacting electron systems * dynamical mean-field theory * critical behavior Subject RIV: BM - Solid Matter Physics ; Magnetism Impact factor: 3.736, year: 2014

Phase stability of transition metals and alloys

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hixson, R.S.; Schiferl, D.; Wills, J.M.; Hill, M.A.

1997-01-01

This is the final report of a three-year, Laboratory-Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). This project was focused on resolving unexplained differences in calculated and measured phase transition pressures in transition metals. Part of the approach was to do new, higher accuracy calculations of transmission pressures for group 4B and group 6B metals. Theory indicates that the transition pressures for these baseline metals should change if alloyed with a d-electron donor metal, and calculations done using the Local Density Approximation (LDA) and the Virtual Crystal Approximation (VCA) indicate that this is true. Alloy systems were calculated for Ti, Zr and Hf based alloys with various solute concentrations. The second part of the program was to do new Diamond Anvil Cell (DAC) measurements to experimentally verify calculational results. Alloys were prepared for these systems with grain size suitable for Diamond Anvil Cell experiments. Experiments were done on pure Ti as well as Ti-V and Ti-Ta alloys. Measuring unambiguous transition pressures for these systems proved difficult, but a new technique developed yielded good results

Topotactic Metal-Insulator Transition in Epitaxial SrFeO x Thin Films

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Khare, Amit; Shin, Dongwon; Yoo, Tae Sup; Kim, Minu; Kang, Tae Dong

2017-01-01

Multivalent transition metal oxides provide fascinating and rich physics related to oxygen stoichiometry. In particular, the adoptability of various valence states of transition metals enables perovskite oxides to display mixed (oxygen) ionic and electronic conduction and catalytic activity useful in many practical applications, including solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), rechargeable batteries, gas sensors, and memristive devices. For proper realization of the ionic conduction and catalytic activity, it is essential to understand the reversible oxidation and reduction process, which is governed by oxygen storage/release steps in oxides. Topotactic phase transformation facilitates the redox process in perovskites with specific oxygen vacancy ordering by largely varying the oxygen concentration of a material without losing the lattice framework. The concentration and diffusion of oxide ions (O 2– ), the valence state of the transition metal cations, and the thermodynamic structural integrity together provide fundamental understanding and ways to explicitly control the redox reaction.[6] In addition, it offers an attractive route for tuning the emergent physical properties of transition metal oxides, via strong coupling between the crystal lattice and electronic structure.

Topotactic Metal-Insulator Transition in Epitaxial SrFeOx Thin Films.

Science.gov (United States)

Khare, Amit; Shin, Dongwon; Yoo, Tae Sup; Kim, Minu; Kang, Tae Dong; Lee, Jaekwang; Roh, Seulki; Jung, In-Ho; Hwang, Jungseek; Kim, Sung Wng; Noh, Tae Won; Ohta, Hiromichi; Choi, Woo Seok

2017-10-01

Topotactic phase transformation enables structural transition without losing the crystalline symmetry of the parental phase and provides an effective platform for elucidating the redox reaction and oxygen diffusion within transition metal oxides. In addition, it enables tuning of the emergent physical properties of complex oxides, through strong interaction between the lattice and electronic degrees of freedom. In this communication, the electronic structure evolution of SrFeO x epitaxial thin films is identified in real-time, during the progress of reversible topotactic phase transformation. Using real-time optical spectroscopy, the phase transition between the two structurally distinct phases (i.e., brownmillerite and perovskite) is quantitatively monitored, and a pressure-temperature phase diagram of the topotactic transformation is constructed for the first time. The transformation at relatively low temperatures is attributed to a markedly small difference in Gibbs free energy compared to the known similar class of materials to date. This study highlights the phase stability and reversibility of SrFeO x thin films, which is highly relevant for energy and environmental applications exploiting the redox reactions. © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Influence of oxygen flow rate on metal-insulator transition of vanadium oxide thin films grown by RF magnetron sputtering

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ma, Xu; Liu, Xinkun; Li, Haizhu; Huang, Mingju [Henan University, Key Lab of Informational Opto-Electronical Materials and Apparatus, School of Physics and Electronics, Kaifeng (China); Zhang, Angran [South China Normal University, Institute of Electronic Paper Displays, South China Academy of Advanced Optoelectronics, Guangzhou (China)

2017-03-15

High-quality vanadium oxide (VO{sub 2}) films have been fabricated on Si (111) substrates by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering deposition method. The sheet resistance of VO{sub 2} has a significant change (close to 5 orders of magnitude) in the process of the metal-insulator phase transition (MIT). The field emission-scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) results show the grain size of VO{sub 2} thin films is larger with the increase of oxygen flow. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) results indicate the thin films fabricated at different oxygen flow rates grow along the (011) crystalline orientation. As the oxygen flow rate increases from 3 sccm to 6 sccm, the phase transition temperature of the films reduces from 341 to 320 K, the width of the thermal hysteresis loop decreases from 32 to 9 K. The thin films fabricated in the condition of 5 sccm have a high temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) -3.455%/K with a small resistivity of 2.795 ρ/Ω cm. (orig.)

Winding Up of the Wave-Function Phase by an Insulator-to-Superfluid Transition in a Ring of Coupled Bose-Einstein Condensates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Dziarmaga, Jacek; Meisner, Jakub; Zurek, Wojciech H.

2008-01-01

We study phase transition from the Mott insulator to superfluid in a periodic optical lattice. Kibble-Zurek mechanism predicts buildup of winding number through random walk of BEC phases, with the step size scaling as a third root of transition rate. We confirm this and demonstrate that this scaling accounts for the net winding number after the transition

Characteristics of the Current-Controlled Phase Transition of VO2 Microwires for Hybrid Optoelectronic Devices

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arash Joushaghani

2015-08-01

Full Text Available The optical and electrical characteristics of the insulator-metal phase transition of vanadium dioxide (VO2 enable the realization of power-efficient, miniaturized hybrid optoelectronic devices. This work studies the current-controlled, two-step insulator-metal phase transition of VO2 in varying microwire geometries. Geometry-dependent scaling trends extracted from current-voltage measurements show that the first step induced by carrier injection is delocalized over the microwire, while the second, thermally-induced step is localized to a filament about 1 to 2 μm wide for 100 nm-thick sputtered VO2 films on SiO2. These effects are confirmed by direct infrared imaging, which also measures the change in optical absorption in the two steps. The difference between the threshold currents of the two steps increases as the microwires are narrowed. Micron- and sub-micron-wide VO2 structures can be used to separate the two phase transition steps in photonic and electronic devices.

Holographic entanglement entropy in two-order insulator/superconductor transitions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Peng, Yan, E-mail: yanpengphy@163.com; Liu, Guohua

2017-04-10

We study holographic superconductor model with two orders in the five dimensional AdS soliton background away from the probe limit. We disclose properties of phase transitions mostly from the holographic topological entanglement entropy approach. Our results show that the entanglement entropy is useful in investigating transitions in this general model and in particular, there is a new type of first order phase transition in the insulator/superconductor system. We also give some qualitative understanding and obtain the analytical condition for this first order phase transition to occur. As a summary, we draw the complete phase diagram representing effects of the scalar charge on phase transitions.

Strange metals and quantum phase transitions from gauge/gravity duality

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Hong

2011-03-01

Metallic materials whose thermodynamic and transport properties differ significantly from those predicted by Fermi liquid theory, so-called non-Fermi liquids, include the strange metal phase of cuprate superconductors, and heavy fermion systems near a quantum phase transition. We use gauge/gravity duality to identify a class of non-Fermi liquids. Their low-energy behavior is governed by a nontrivial infrared fixed point which exhibits non-analytic scaling behavior only in the temporal direction. Some representatives of this class have single-particle spectral functions and transport behavior similar to those of the strange metals, with conductivity inversely proportional to the temperature. Such holographic systems may also exhibit novel ``magnetic instabilities'', where the quantum critical behavior near the transition involves a nontrivial interplay between local and bulk physics, with the local physics again described by a similar infrared fixed point. The resulting quantum phase transitions do not obey the standard Landau-Ginsburg-Wilson paradigm and resemble those of the heavy fermion quantum critical points.

Light-induced ultrafast phase transitions in VO2 thin film

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lysenko, S.; Rua, A.J.; Vikhnin, V.; Jimenez, J.; Fernandez, F.; Liu, H.

2006-01-01

Vanadium dioxide shows a passive and reversible change from a monoclinic insulator phase to a metallic tetragonal rutile structure when the sample temperature is close to and over 68 deg. C. As a kind of functional material, VO 2 thin films deposited on fused quartz substrates were successfully prepared by the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. With laser illumination at 400 nm on the obtained films, the phase transition (PT) occurred. The observed light-induced PT was as fast as the laser pulse duration of 100 fs. Using a femtosecond laser system, the relaxation processes in VO 2 were studied by optical pump-probe spectroscopy. Upon a laser excitation an instantaneous response in the transient reflectivity and transmission was observed followed by a relatively longer relaxation process. The alteration is dependent on pump power. The change in reflectance reached a maximum value at a pump pulse energy between 7 and 14 mJ/cm 2 . The observed PT is associated with the optical interband transition in VO 2 thin film. It suggests that with a pump laser illuminating on the film, excitation from the d θ,ε - state of valence band to the unoccupied excited mixed d θ,ε -π* - state of the conduction band in the insulator phase occurs, followed by a resonant transition to an unoccupied excited mixed d θ,ε -π* - state of the metallic phase band

Thouless energy as a unifying concept for Josephson junctions tuned through the Mott metal-insulator transition

Science.gov (United States)

Tahvildar-Zadeh, A. N.; Freericks, J. K.; Nikolić, B. K.

2006-05-01

The Thouless energy was introduced in the 1970s as a semiclassical energy for electrons diffusing through a finite-sized conductor. It turns out to be an important quantum-mechanical energy scale for many systems ranging from disordered metals to quantum chaos to quantum chromodynamics. In particular, it has been quite successful in describing the properties of Josephson junctions when the barrier is a diffusive normal-state metal. The Thouless energy concept can be generalized to insulating barriers by extracting an energy scale from the two-probe Kubo conductance of a strongly correlated electron system (metallic or insulating) via a generalized definition of the quantum-mechanical level spacing to many-body systems. This energy scale is known to determine the crossover from tunneling to Ohmic (thermally activated) transport in normal tunnel junctions. Here we use it to illustrate how the quasiclassical picture of transport in Josephson junctions is modified as the strongly correlated barrier passes through the Mott transition. Surprisingly, we find the quasiclassical form holds well beyond its putative realm of validity.

Determination of Insulator-to-Semiconductor Transition in Sol-Gel Oxide Semiconductors Using Derivative Spectroscopy.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Woobin; Choi, Seungbeom; Kim, Kyung Tae; Kang, Jingu; Park, Sung Kyu; Kim, Yong-Hoon

2015-12-23

We report a derivative spectroscopic method for determining insulator-to-semiconductor transition during sol-gel metal-oxide semiconductor formation. When an as-spun sol-gel precursor film is photochemically activated and changes to semiconducting state, the light absorption characteristics of the metal-oxide film is considerable changed particularly in the ultraviolet region. As a result, a peak is generated in the first-order derivatives of light absorption ( A' ) vs. wavelength (λ) plots, and by tracing the peak center shift and peak intensity, transition from insulating-to-semiconducting state of the film can be monitored. The peak generation and peak center shift are described based on photon-energy-dependent absorption coefficient of metal-oxide films. We discuss detailed analysis method for metal-oxide semiconductor films and its application in thin-film transistor fabrication. We believe this derivative spectroscopy based determination can be beneficial for a non-destructive and a rapid monitoring of the insulator-to-semiconductor transition in sol-gel oxide semiconductor formation.

Optical study of phase transitions in single-crystalline RuP

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, R. Y.; Shi, Y. G.; Zheng, P.; Wang, L.; Dong, T.; Wang, N. L.

2015-03-01

RuP single crystals of MnP-type orthorhombic structure were synthesized by the Sn flux method. Temperature-dependent x-ray diffraction measurements reveal that the compound experiences two structural phase transitions, which are further confirmed by enormous anomalies shown in temperature-dependent resistivity and magnetic susceptibility. Particularly, the resistivity drops monotonically upon temperature cooling below the second transition, indicating that the material shows metallic behavior, in sharp contrast with the insulating ground state of polycrystalline samples. Optical conductivity measurements were also performed in order to unravel the mechanism of these two transitions. The measurement revealed a sudden reconstruction of band structure over a broad energy scale and a significant removal of conducting carriers below the first phase transition, while a charge-density-wave-like energy gap opens below the second phase transition.

Ca-site substitution induced a metal-insulator transition in manganite CaMnO3

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sousa, D.; Nunes, M.R.; Silveira, C.; Matos, I.; Lopes, A.B.; Melo Jorge, M.E.

2008-01-01

A systematic study of the A-site doping in Mn(IV)-rich perovskite manganites Ca 1-x Ho x MnO 3 , over a large homogeneity range (0.1 ≤ x ≤ 0.4), has been performed. A significant increase in the lattice parameters indicated the presence of mixed valence state of Mn: Mn 3+ and Mn 4+ . The substitution of calcium by holmium also induces strong changes in the electrical properties. We found that small Ho concentration produces an important decrease in the electrical resistivity and induces an electrical transition, the temperature corresponding to the metal-insulator transition (T MI ) shifts with the holmium content. This electrical behavior is attributed to the Mn 3+ ions content and a charge order effect

Synthesis and characterization of nanostructured transition metal oxides for energy storage devices

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Jong Woung

Finding a promising material and constructing a new method to have both high energy and power are key issues for future energy storage systems. This dissertation addresses three different materials systems to resolve those issues. Pseudocapacitive materials such as RuO2 and MnO2 display high capacitance but Nb2O5, displays a different charge storage mechanism, one highly dependent on its crystal phase rather than its surface area. Various sol-gel techniques were used to synthesize the different phases of Nb2O5 and electrochemical testing was used to study their charge storage with some phases displaying comparable charge storage to MnO2. To overcome the electrical limitations of using an insulating material, the core-shell structure (Nb2O 5/C) was also examined and the method could be generalized to improve other pseudocapacitors. Besides electronic conductivity, the diffusion of the electrolyte ions through the shell material is a critical factor for fast charging/discharging in the core-shell structure. This dissertation also involves another topic, a reconfigurable electrode, that displays both high energy and power density. By constructing a reconfigurable electrode which has different electrical properties (metallic or insulating state) depending on the amount of intercalated `guest' ions into `host' material, it can be used as a battery or electrochemical capacitor material in the insulating or metallic state respectively. Metal oxide bronzes having metal-insulator transition were investigated in this study.

Metal–insulator transition in Ni-doped Na0.75CoO2: Insights from ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

resistivity on lowering the temperature, with the metal-to-insulator transition temperature. (TMIT) increasing with the Ni ... The Ni-doped sample is seen to change over from a metallic to insulating behaviour at ~175 K. The ..... neutron diffraction to look for structural changes, viz., changes in bond lengths and site occupancies ...

Phase Separation in Doped Mott Insulators

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Chuck-Hou Yee

2015-04-01

Full Text Available Motivated by the commonplace observation of Mott insulators away from integer filling, we construct a simple thermodynamic argument for phase separation in first-order doping-driven Mott transitions. We show how to compute the critical dopings required to drive the Mott transition using electronic structure calculations for the titanate family of perovskites, finding good agreement with experiment. The theory predicts that the transition is percolative and should exhibit Coulomb frustration.

Charge driven metal-insulator transitions in LaMnO3|SrTiO3 (111) superlattices

KAUST Repository

Cossu, Fabrizio; Tahini, Hassan Ali; Singh, Nirpendra; Schwingenschlö gl, Udo

2017-01-01

Interfaces of perovskite oxides, due to the strong interplay between the lattice, charge and spin degrees of freedom, can host various phase transitions, which is particularly interesting if these transitions can be tuned by external fields. Recently, ferromagnetism was found together with a seemingly insulating state in superlattices of manganites and titanates. We therefore study the (111) oriented $(\\text{LaMnO}_3)_{6-x}\\vert(\\text{SrTiO}_3)_{6+x}~(x = -0.5, 0, 0.5)$ superlattices by means of ab initio calculations, predicting a ferromagnetic ground state due to double exchange in all cases. We shed light on the ferromagnetic coupling in the LaMnO3 region and at the interfaces. The insulating states of specific superlattices can be understood on the basis of Jahn-Teller modes and electron/hole doping.

Charge driven metal-insulator transitions in LaMnO3|SrTiO3 (111) superlattices

KAUST Repository

Cossu, Fabrizio

2017-08-01

Interfaces of perovskite oxides, due to the strong interplay between the lattice, charge and spin degrees of freedom, can host various phase transitions, which is particularly interesting if these transitions can be tuned by external fields. Recently, ferromagnetism was found together with a seemingly insulating state in superlattices of manganites and titanates. We therefore study the (111) oriented $(\\\\text{LaMnO}_3)_{6-x}\\\\vert(\\\\text{SrTiO}_3)_{6+x}~(x = -0.5, 0, 0.5)$ superlattices by means of ab initio calculations, predicting a ferromagnetic ground state due to double exchange in all cases. We shed light on the ferromagnetic coupling in the LaMnO3 region and at the interfaces. The insulating states of specific superlattices can be understood on the basis of Jahn-Teller modes and electron/hole doping.

Disorder-induced localization in crystalline phase-change materials.

Science.gov (United States)

Siegrist, T; Jost, P; Volker, H; Woda, M; Merkelbach, P; Schlockermann, C; Wuttig, M

2011-03-01

Localization of charge carriers in crystalline solids has been the subject of numerous investigations over more than half a century. Materials that show a metal-insulator transition without a structural change are therefore of interest. Mechanisms leading to metal-insulator transition include electron correlation (Mott transition) or disorder (Anderson localization), but a clear distinction is difficult. Here we report on a metal-insulator transition on increasing annealing temperature for a group of crystalline phase-change materials, where the metal-insulator transition is due to strong disorder usually associated only with amorphous solids. With pronounced disorder but weak electron correlation, these phase-change materials form an unparalleled quantum state of matter. Their universal electronic behaviour seems to be at the origin of the remarkable reproducibility of the resistance switching that is crucial to their applications in non-volatile-memory devices. Controlling the degree of disorder in crystalline phase-change materials might enable multilevel resistance states in upcoming storage devices.

Metal-insulator-semiconductor photodetectors.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Chu-Hsuan; Liu, Chee Wee

2010-01-01

The major radiation of the sun can be roughly divided into three regions: ultraviolet, visible, and infrared light. Detection in these three regions is important to human beings. The metal-insulator-semiconductor photodetector, with a simpler process than the pn-junction photodetector and a lower dark current than the MSM photodetector, has been developed for light detection in these three regions. Ideal UV photodetectors with high UV-to-visible rejection ratio could be demonstrated with III-V metal-insulator-semiconductor UV photodetectors. The visible-light detection and near-infrared optical communications have been implemented with Si and Ge metal-insulator-semiconductor photodetectors. For mid- and long-wavelength infrared detection, metal-insulator-semiconductor SiGe/Si quantum dot infrared photodetectors have been developed, and the detection spectrum covers atmospheric transmission windows.

Metal-Insulator-Semiconductor Photodetectors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chu-Hsuan Lin

2010-09-01

Full Text Available The major radiation of the Sun can be roughly divided into three regions: ultraviolet, visible, and infrared light. Detection in these three regions is important to human beings. The metal-insulator-semiconductor photodetector, with a simpler process than the pn-junction photodetector and a lower dark current than the MSM photodetector, has been developed for light detection in these three regions. Ideal UV photodetectors with high UV-to-visible rejection ratio could be demonstrated with III-V metal-insulator-semiconductor UV photodetectors. The visible-light detection and near-infrared optical communications have been implemented with Si and Ge metal-insulator-semiconductor photodetectors. For mid- and long-wavelength infrared detection, metal-insulator-semiconductor SiGe/Si quantum dot infrared photodetectors have been developed, and the detection spectrum covers atmospheric transmission windows.

Reflectance study on the metal-insulator transition driven by crystallinity change in poly(3,4-ethylenedioxy thiophene)/poly(styrenesulfonate) films

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cho, Shinuk; Park, Sungheum; Lee, Kwanghee

2005-01-01

We report optical reflectance, R(ω), studies on free-standing films of poly(3,4-ethylene dioxy thiophene)/poly(style ne sulfonate) (PEDOT-PSS) measured over a range from 0.02 - 5.0 eV. When the PEDOT-PSS films were prepared at an elevated temperature of 60 .deg. C, the films exhibit an increased dc-conductivity (σ dc ∼ 104 S/cm) and an optical conductivity, σ(ω), in the intraband transitions below 1.0 eV as compared with the films prepared at room temperature (σ dc ∼ 47 S/cm). Detailed analysis of σ(ω) in terms of the 'localization-modified Drude (LMD) model' demonstrated that the heat-treated PEDOT-PSS was a disordered metal near the metal-insulator transition (MIT) while the as-grown films could be better described as a Fermi glass on the insulating side of MIT. The heat-annealing process increased the degree of crystallinity of the films, thereby inducing a MIT near the critical limit.

Ultrafast Dynamics in Vanadium Dioxide: Separating Spatially Segregated Mixed Phase Dynamics in the Time-domain

Science.gov (United States)

Hilton, David

2011-10-01

In correlated electronic systems, observed electronic and structural behavior results from the complex interplay between multiple, sometimes competing degrees-of- freedom. One such material used to study insulator-to-metal transitions is vanadium dioxide, which undergoes a phase transition from a monoclinic-insulating phase to a rutile-metallic phase when the sample is heated to 340 K. The major open question with this material is the relative influence of this structural phase transition (Peirels transition) and the effects of electronic correlations (Mott transition) on the observed insulator-to-metal transition. Answers to these major questions are complicated by vanadium dioxide's sensitivity to perturbations in the chemical structure in VO2. For example, related VxOy oxides with nearly a 2:1 ratio do not demonstrate the insulator-to- metal transition, while recent work has demonstrated that W:VO2 has demonstrated a tunable transition temperature controllable with tungsten doping. All of these preexisting results suggest that the observed electronic properties are exquisitely sensitive to the sample disorder. Using ultrafast spectroscopic techniques, it is now possible to impulsively excite this transition and investigate the photoinduced counterpart to this thermal phase transition in a strongly nonequilibrium regime. I will discuss our recent results studying the terahertz-frequency conductivity dynamics of this photoinduced phase transition in the poorly understood near threshold temperature range. We find a dramatic softening of the transition near the critical temperature, which results primarily from the mixed phase coexistence near the transition temperature. To directly study this mixed phase behavior, we directly study the nucleation and growth rates of the metallic phase in the parent insulator using non-degenerate optical pump-probe spectroscopy. These experiments measure, in the time- domain, the coexistent phase separation in VO2 (spatially

Kondo-Anderson transitions

Science.gov (United States)

Kettemann, S.; Mucciolo, E. R.; Varga, I.; Slevin, K.

2012-03-01

Dilute magnetic impurities in a disordered Fermi liquid are considered close to the Anderson metal-insulator transition (AMIT). Critical power-law correlations between electron wave functions at different energies in the vicinity of the AMIT result in the formation of pseudogaps of the local density of states. Magnetic impurities can remain unscreened at such sites. We determine the density of the resulting free magnetic moments in the zero-temperature limit. While it is finite on the insulating side of the AMIT, it vanishes at the AMIT, and decays with a power law as function of the distance to the AMIT. Since the fluctuating spins of these free magnetic moments break the time-reversal symmetry of the conduction electrons, we find a shift of the AMIT, and the appearance of a semimetal phase. The distribution function of the Kondo temperature TK is derived at the AMIT, in the metallic phase, and in the insulator phase. This allows us to find the quantum phase diagram in an external magnetic field B and at finite temperature T. We calculate the resulting magnetic susceptibility, the specific heat, and the spin relaxation rate as a function of temperature. We find a phase diagram with finite-temperature transitions among insulator, critical semimetal, and metal phases. These new types of phase transitions are caused by the interplay between Kondo screening and Anderson localization, with the latter being shifted by the appearance of the temperature-dependent spin-flip scattering rate. Accordingly, we name them Kondo-Anderson transitions.

Features of order-disorder phase transformation in nonstoichiometric transition metals carbides

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Emel'yanov, A.N.

1996-01-01

Measurements of temperature and electric conductivity of nonstoichiometric transition metals carbides TiC χ and NbC χ in the area of order-disorder phase transformation are carried out. There are certain peculiarities on the temperature and electric conductivity curves of the carbides, connected with the carbon sublattice disordering. On the basis of the anomalies observed on the curves of the temperature conductivity of nonstoichiometric carbides of transition metals above the temperature of the order-disorder transition the existence of the second structural transition is supposed

Soft Coulomb gap and asymmetric scaling towards metal-insulator quantum criticality in multilayer MoS2.

Science.gov (United States)

Moon, Byoung Hee; Bae, Jung Jun; Joo, Min-Kyu; Choi, Homin; Han, Gang Hee; Lim, Hanjo; Lee, Young Hee

2018-05-24

Quantum localization-delocalization of carriers are well described by either carrier-carrier interaction or disorder. When both effects come into play, however, a comprehensive understanding is not well established mainly due to complexity and sparse experimental data. Recently developed two-dimensional layered materials are ideal in describing such mesoscopic critical phenomena as they have both strong interactions and disorder. The transport in the insulating phase is well described by the soft Coulomb gap picture, which demonstrates the contribution of both interactions and disorder. Using this picture, we demonstrate the critical power law behavior of the localization length, supporting quantum criticality. We observe asymmetric critical exponents around the metal-insulator transition through temperature scaling analysis, which originates from poor screening in insulating regime and conversely strong screening in metallic regime due to free carriers. The effect of asymmetric scaling behavior is weakened in monolayer MoS 2 due to a dominating disorder.

Discontinuous structural phase transition of liquid metal and alloys (2)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wang, Li; Liu, Jiantong

2004-01-01

The diameter (d f ) of diffusion fluid cluster before and after phase transition has been calculated in terms of the paper ''Discontinuous structural phase transition of liquid metal and alloy (1)'' Physics Letters. A 326 (2004) 429-435, to verify quantitatively the discontinuity of structural phase transition; the phenomena of thermal contraction and thermal expansion during the phase transition, together with the evolution model of discontinuous structural phase transition are also discussed in this Letter to explore further the nature of structural transition; In addition, based on the viscosity experimental result mentioned in paper [Y. Waseda, The Structure of Non-Crystalline Materials--Liquids and Amorphous Solids, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1980], we present an approach to draw an embryo of the liquid-liquid (L-L) phase diagram for binary alloys above liquidus in the paper, expecting to guide metallurgy process so as to improve the properties of alloys. The idea that controls amorphous structure and its properties by means of the L-L phase diagram for alloys and by the rapid cooling technique to form the amorphous alloy has been brought forward in the end

Beginning point of metal to insulator transition for Bi-2223 superconducting matrix doped with Eu nanoparticles

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yildirim, G.

2013-01-01

Highlights: •Standard measurements such as bulk density, ρ-T, J ct , XRD, SEM and EDX examinations for characterization of the samples. •Role of Eu inclusions on the microstructural, electrical and superconducting properties of Bi-2223 phase. •Determination of metal to insulator transition due to Eu impurities in the Bi-2223 superconducting matrix. •From the Eu content level of x = 0.5 onwards, destruction of the superconducting phases. •Constant retrogression of the microstructural and superconducting properties with the Eu individuals. -- Abstract: This comprehensive study examines the change of the microstructural, electrical and superconducting properties of the Eu doped Bi 1.8 Pb 0.4 Eu x Sr 2 Ca 2.2 Cu 3.0 O y ceramic cuprates (with x ⩽ 0.7) produced by the conventional solid state reaction method at the constant annealing temperature of 840 °C for 24 h with the aid of the standard characterization measurements such as bulk density, dc resistivity (ρ-T), transport critical current density (J c ), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electron dispersive X-ray (EDX) examinations. For the full characterization of the pure and Eu doped Bi-2223 samples, the degree of granularity (from the bulk density and porosity measurements); the room temperature resistivity, onset–offset critical transition temperature, variation of transition temperature, hole carrier concentration, spin-gap opening temperature and thermodynamic fluctuations (from the dc resistivity experiments); the texturing, crystal structure, crystallite size, phase purity and cell parameters (from the XRD investigations); the variation of the flux pinning centers and the boundary weak-links between the superconducting grains (from the critical current density values); the crystallinity, specimen surface morphology, grain connectivity between the superconducting grains and grain size distribution (from the SEM examinations), the elemental compositions and

Substitution effect on metal-insulator transition of K2V8O16

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Isobe, Masahiko; Koishi, Shigenori; Yamazaki, Satoshi; Yamaura, Jun-ichi; Gotou, Hirotada; Yagi, Takehiko; Ueda, Yutaka

2009-01-01

The effect of the substitution of various ions on the metal-insulator (MI) transition at 170 K in K 2 V 8 O 16 has been investigated. Both Rb and Ti form complete solid solution systems: K 2-x Rb x V 8 O 16 and K 2 V 8-y Ti y O 16 , respectively. The substitution of Rb for K or of Ti for V splits the transition into two transitions: the high-temperature transition is a first-order MI transition from a tetragonal structure to a tetragonal structure, and the low-temperature transition is a second-order transition to a monoclinic structure. In K 2-x Rb x V 8 O 16 , the former terminates to an MI transition at around 220 K in Rb 2 V 8 O 16 , while the latter disappears at x > 0.6. In K 2 V 8-y Ti y O 16 , both transitions disappear at y > 0.5. The substitution of Cr for V also results in a similar splitting of the transition and the rapid disappearance of both transitions. The substitution of Na or Ba for K suppresses the MI transition without any splitting of the transition, although the solubility of both ions is limited. These substitution effects reveal that the MI transition of K 2 V 8 O 16 consists of two parts: a first-order MI transition and a parasitic second-order structural transition; the substitution of some ions causes a clear splitting of these transitions, probably due to the difference between the chemical pressure effects on the two transitions. The first-order MI transition is very sensitive to charge randomness, suggesting the charge ordering nature of the MI transition, while the second-order structural transition is very sensitive to both charge and structural randomnesses. (author)

Luminescence from metals and insulators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Crawford, O.H.

1985-01-01

The term luminescence is normally applied to light emission that is not explainable by the mechanisms discussed by the other speakers in this meeting. Specifically, it is not transition radiation, surface plasmon radiation, or bremsstrahlung. One normally thinks of luminescence as arising from one-electron transitions within a medium. This talk consists of an overview of luminescence from condensed matter under irradiation by either energetic particles or photons. The author begins with organic molecules, where luminescence is best understood, and then discusses inorganic insulators and metals. Finally, the dependence of yield upon projectile species and velocity is discussed, and predictions are made concerning the relative effectiveness of electrons, protons, and hydrogen atoms in exciting luminescence

New pathway for the formation of metallic cubic phase Ge-Sb-Te compounds induced by an electric current.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Yong-Jin; Cho, Ju-Young; Jeong, Min-Woo; Na, Sekwon; Joo, Young-Chang

2016-02-23

The novel discovery of a current-induced transition from insulator to metal in the crystalline phase of Ge2Sb2Te5 and GeSb4Te7 have been studied by means of a model using line-patterned samples. The resistivity of cubic phase Ge-Sb-Te compound was reduced by an electrical current (~1 MA/cm(2)), and the final resistivity was determined based on the stress current density, regardless of the initial resistivity and temperature, which indicates that the conductivity of Ge-Sb-Te compound can be modulated by an electrical current. The minimum resistivity of Ge-Sb-Te materials can be achieved at high kinetic rates by applying an electrical current, and the material properties change from insulating to metallic behavior without a phase transition. The current-induced metal transition is more effective in GeSb4Te7 than Ge2Sb2Te5, which depends on the intrinsic vacancy of materials. Electromigration, which is the migration of atoms induced by a momentum transfer from charge carriers, can easily promote the rearrangement of vacancies in the cubic phase of Ge-Sb-Te compound. This behavior differs significantly from thermal annealing, which accompanies a phase transition to the hexagonal phase. This result suggests a new pathway for modulating the electrical conductivity and material properties of chalcogenide materials by applying an electrical current.

Cryogenic microwave imaging of metal–insulator transition in doped silicon

KAUST Repository

Kundhikanjana, Worasom; Lai, Keji; Kelly, Michael A.; Shen, Zhi-Xun

2011-01-01

We report the instrumentation and experimental results of a cryogenic scanning microwave impedance microscope. The microwave probe and the scanning stage are located inside the variable temperature insert of a helium cryostat. Microwave signals in the distance modulation mode are used for monitoring the tip-sample distance and adjusting the phase of the two output channels. The ability to spatially resolve the metal-insulator transition in a doped silicon sample is demonstrated. The data agree with a semiquantitative finite element simulation. Effects of the thermal energy and electric fields on local charge carriers can be seen in the images taken at different temperatures and dc biases. © 2011 American Institute of Physics.

First-principles study of doping effect on the phase transition of zinc oxide with transition metal doped

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, Liang; Hou, Tingjun; Wang, Yi; Zhao, Yanfei; Guo, Zhenyu; Li, Youyong; Lee, Shuit-Tong

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► We study the doping effect on B4, B1 structures and phase transition of ZnO. ► We calculate the phase transition barrier and phase transition path of doped ZnO. ► The transition metal doping decreases the bulk modulus and phase transition pressure. ► The magnetic properties are influenced by the phase transition process. - Abstract: Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a promising material for its wide application in solid-state devices. With the pressure raised from an ambient condition, ZnO transforms from fourfold wurtzite (B4) to sixfold coordinated rocksalt (B1) structure. Doping is an efficient approach to improve the structures and properties of materials. Here we use density-functional theory (DFT) to study doped ZnO and find that the transition pressure from B4 phase to B1 phase of ZnO always decreases with different types of transition metal (V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, or Ni) doped, but the phase transition path is not affected by doping. This is consistent with the available experimental results for Mn-doped ZnO and Co-doped ZnO. Doping in ZnO causes the lattice distortion, which leads to the decrease of the bulk modulus and accelerates the phase transition. Mn-doped ZnO shows the strongest magnetic moment due to its half filled d orbital. For V-doped ZnO and Cr-doped ZnO, the magnetism is enhanced by phase transition from B4 to B1. But for Mn-doped ZnO, Fe-doped ZnO, Co-doped ZnO, and Ni-doped ZnO, B1 phase shows weaker magnetic moment than B4 phase. These results can be explained by the amount of charge transferred from the doped atom to O atom. Our results provide a theoretical basis for the doping approach to change the structures and properties of ZnO.

Superconductor-Insulator transition in a single Josephson junction

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sonin, E.B.; PenttilA, J.S.; Parts, O.; Hakonen, P.J.; Paalanen, M.A.

1999-01-01

For ultra small Josephson junctions, when quantum effects become important, dissipative phase transition (DPT) has been predicted. The physical origin of this transition is the suppression of macroscopic quantum tunneling of the phase by tile interaction with dissipative quantum-mechanical environment. Macroscopic quantum tunneling destroys superconductivity of a junction, whereas suppression of tunneling restores superconductivity. Hence, this transition is often called a superconductor-insulator transition (SIT). SIT was predicted for various systems, but its detection in a single Josephson junction is of principal importance since it is the simplest system where this transition is expected, without any risk of being masked by other physical processes, as is possible in more complicated systems like regular or' random Josephson junction arrays. In this Letter we present results of our measurements on R = dV/dI vs. I curves, for a variety of single small isolated Josephson junctions, shunted and un shunted, with different values of capacitance C and normal state tunneling resistance RT. We have detected a crossover. between two types of RI-curves with an essentially different behavior at small currents. On the basis of this crossover, we are able to map out the whole phase diagram for a Josephson junction. The position of the observed phase boundary did not agree with that expected from the original theory. However, the theory revised to take into account a finite accuracy of our voltage measurements (viz., the minimum voltage which we are able to detect), explains well the observed phase diagram. Our important conclusion is that the concept of dissipative phase transition (DPT) and superconductor-insulator transition (SIT) are not completely identical as assumed before. Both are accompanied by the sign change of the thermo resistance, which is traditionally considered as a signature of SIT. Thus any DPT is SIT, but not vice versa. We argue that the real signature

Electron dynamics in films made of transition metal nanograins embedded in SiO[sub 2]: Infrared reflectivity and nanoplasma infrared resonance

KAUST Repository

Massa, Néstor E.

2009-06-04

We report on near normal infrared reflectivityspectra of ∼550 nm thick films made of cosputtered transition metal nanograins and SiO2 in a wide range of metal fractions. Co0.85(SiO2)0.15,with conductivity well above the percolation threshold has a frequency and temperature behavior according to what it is find in conductingmetal oxides. The electron scattering rate displays a unique relaxation time characteristic of single type of carriers experiencing strong electron-phonon interactions. Using small polaron fits we identify those phonons as glass vibrational modes. Ni0.61(SiO2)0.39, with a metal fraction closer to the percolation threshold, undergoes a metal-nonmetal transition at ∼77 K. Here, as it is suggested by the scattering rate nearly quadratic dependence, we broadly identify two relaxation times (two carrier contributions) associated to a Drude mode and a midinfrared overdamped band, respectively. Disorder induced, the midinfrared contribution drives the phase transition by thermal electron localization. Co0.51(SiO2)0.49 has the reflectivity of an insulator with a distinctive band at ∼1450 cm−1 originating in electron promotion, localization, and defect induced polaron formation. Angle dependent oblique reflectivity of globally insulating Co0.38(SiO2)0.62, Fe0.34(SiO2)0.66, and Ni0.28(SiO2)0.72, reveals a remarkable resonance at that band threshold. We understand this as due to the excitation by normal to the film electric fields of defect localized electrons in the metallic nanoparticles. At higher oblique angles, this localized nanoplasma couples to SiO2 longitudinal optical Berreman phonons resulting in band peak softening reminiscent to the phonon behavior undergoing strong electron-phonon interactions. Singular to a globally insulating phase, we believe that this resonance might be a useful tool for tracking metal-insulator phase transitions in inhomogeneous materials.

Magnetic phase transition induced by electrostatic gating in two-dimensional square metal-organic frameworks

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yun-Peng; Li, Xiang-Guo; Liu, Shuang-Long; Fry, James N.; Cheng, Hai-Ping

2018-03-01

We investigate theoretically magnetism and magnetic phase transitions induced by electrostatic gating of two-dimensional square metal-organic framework compounds. We find that electrostatic gating can induce phase transitions between homogeneous ferromagnetic and various spin-textured antiferromagnetic states. Electronic structure and Wannier function analysis can reveal hybridizations between transition-metal d orbitals and conjugated π orbitals in the organic framework. Mn-containing compounds exhibit a strong d -π hybridization that leads to partially occupied spin-minority bands, in contrast to compounds containing transition-metal ions other than Mn, for which electronic structure around the Fermi energy is only slightly spin split due to weak d -π hybridization and the magnetic interaction is of the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida type. We use a ferromagnetic Kondo lattice model to understand the phase transition in Mn-containing compounds in terms of carrier density and illuminate the complexity and the potential to control two-dimensional magnetization.

Electronic Structure of the Pyrochlore-Type Ru Oxides through the Metal--Insulator Transition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Okamoto, J.; Fujimori, S.I.; Okane, T.; Fujimori, A.; Abbate, M.; Yoshii, S.; Sato, M.

2003-01-01

The electronic structures of the pyrochlore-type Ru oxides Sm 2-x Ca x Ru 2 O 7 and Sm 2-x Bi x Ru 2 O 7 , which show metal-insulator transition with increasing Ca or Bi concentration, have been studied by ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy. Spectral changes near the Fermi level are different but reflect the tendency of their transport properties in both systems. The Sm 2-x Ca x Ru 2 O 7 system shows an energy shift, which is expected from the increase of hole in the Ru 4d t 2g band and the Sm 2 - x Bi x Ru 2 O 7 system shows spectral weight transfer within the Ru 4d t 2g band, which is expected to be observed in bandwidth-control Mott-Hubbard system. (author)

Extrinsic and intrinsic properties in metal–insulator transition of hydrothermally prepared vanadium dioxide crystals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Myeongsoon; Kim, Don

2014-01-01

The clear insulator (monoclinic-VO 2 ) to metal (rutile-VO 2 ) transition (IMT) was observed in electrical conductivity and differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) measurements at around 340 K, which is IMT temperature (T H ), in the hydrothermally prepared VO 2 crystals. The occurrence of metal to insulator transition (MIT) temperature (T C ) was observed below 333 K during the first resistance measurement cycle in the most of cases. The sudden jump of the electrical resistance at IMT and MIT points was amplified several times than that of the first cycle during the repeated successive thermal cycles (heating and cooling across the IMT and MIT temperatures). T C and T H shifted to higher temperature by the repeated successive thermal cycles. This shift and the amplified jump might be related to the mechanical stress between the VO 2 crystals, i.e. extrinsic properties. However, the starting point of MIT, T CS = ∼ 336 K, and the starting point of IMT, T HS = ∼ 338 K, kept almost constant during the repeated thermal cycles (< 10 times). These two temperatures may be related to the intrinsic properties of the VO 2 : the phase transitions initiated at these temperatures regardless of the number of the repeated thermal cycles. The neat surface of the VO 2 crystals was severely damaged and the average size of particles reduced from 110 nm to 70–90 nm after extensively repeated thermal cycles (> 70 times). The damaged surface and the smaller particles, which would be originated from the mechanical stress caused by crystal volume change during the first order transition of the VO 2 , would weaken the electrical conduction path (loosen grain boundaries) between the VO 2 single crystals and would result in the amplified jump at the following MIT. This report may boost the study for the improved stability and lifetime of the VO 2 based electronic devices. - Highlights: • The sharp phase transition in cluster of VO 2 crystals depends on repeated thermal cycles. �

The topological Anderson insulator phase in the Kane-Mele model

Science.gov (United States)

Orth, Christoph P.; Sekera, Tibor; Bruder, Christoph; Schmidt, Thomas L.

2016-04-01

It has been proposed that adding disorder to a topologically trivial mercury telluride/cadmium telluride (HgTe/CdTe) quantum well can induce a transition to a topologically nontrivial state. The resulting state was termed topological Anderson insulator and was found in computer simulations of the Bernevig-Hughes-Zhang model. Here, we show that the topological Anderson insulator is a more universal phenomenon and also appears in the Kane-Mele model of topological insulators on a honeycomb lattice. We numerically investigate the interplay of the relevant parameters, and establish the parameter range in which the topological Anderson insulator exists. A staggered sublattice potential turns out to be a necessary condition for the transition to the topological Anderson insulator. For weak enough disorder, a calculation based on the lowest-order Born approximation reproduces quantitatively the numerical data. Our results thus considerably increase the number of candidate materials for the topological Anderson insulator phase.

First-principles interatomic potentials for transition-metal aluminides. III. Extension to ternary phase diagrams

Science.gov (United States)

Widom, Mike; Al-Lehyani, Ibrahim; Moriarty, John A.

2000-08-01

Modeling structural and mechanical properties of intermetallic compounds and alloys requires detailed knowledge of their interatomic interactions. The first two papers of this series [Phys. Rev. B 56, 7905 (1997); 58, 8967 (1998)] derived first-principles interatomic potentials for transition-metal (TM) aluminides using generalized pseudopotential theory (GPT). Those papers focused on binary alloys of aluminum with first-row transition metals and assessed the ability of GPT potentials to reproduce and elucidate the alloy phase diagrams of Al-Co and Al-Ni. This paper addresses the phase diagrams of the binary alloy Al-Cu and the ternary systems Al-Co-Cu and Al-Co-Ni, using GPT pair potentials calculated in the limit of vanishing transition-metal concentration. Despite this highly simplifying approximation, we find rough agreement with the known low-temperature phase diagrams, up to 50% total TM concentration provided the Co fraction is below 25%. Full composition-dependent potentials and many-body interactions would be required to correct deficiencies at higher Co concentration. Outside this troublesome region, the experimentally determined stable and metastable phases all lie on or near the convex hull of a scatter plot of energy versus composition. We verify, qualitatively, reported solubility ranges extending binary alloys into the ternary diagram in both Al-Co-Cu and Al-Co-Ni. Finally, we reproduce previously conjectured transition-metal positions in the decagonal quasicrystal phase.

Floquet engineering of Haldane Chern insulators and chiral bosonic phase transitions

Science.gov (United States)

Plekhanov, Kirill; Roux, Guillaume; Le Hur, Karyn

2017-01-01

The realization of synthetic gauge fields has attracted a lot of attention recently in relation to periodically driven systems and the Floquet theory. In ultracold atom systems in optical lattices and photonic networks, this allows one to simulate exotic phases of matter such as quantum Hall phases, anomalous quantum Hall phases, and analogs of topological insulators. In this paper, we apply the Floquet theory to engineer anisotropic Haldane models on the honeycomb lattice and two-leg ladder systems. We show that these anisotropic Haldane models still possess a topologically nontrivial band structure associated with chiral edge modes. Focusing on (interacting) boson systems in s -wave bands of the lattice, we show how to engineer through the Floquet theory, a quantum phase transition (QPT) between a uniform superfluid and a Bose-Einstein condensate analog of Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov states, where bosons condense at nonzero wave vectors. We perform a Ginzburg-Landau analysis of the QPT on the graphene lattice, and compute observables such as chiral currents and the momentum distribution. The results are supported by exact diagonalization calculations and compared with those of the isotropic situation. The validity of high-frequency expansion in the Floquet theory is also tested using time-dependent simulations for various parameters of the model. Last, we show that the anisotropic choice for the effective vector potential allows a bosonization approach in equivalent ladder (strip) geometries.

The evolution of Griffiths-phase-like features and colossal magnetoresistance in La1-xCaxMnO3 (0.18 ≤ x ≤ 0.27) across the compositional metal-insulator boundary

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jiang Wanjun; Zhou Xuezhi; Williams, Gwyn; Mukovskii, Y; Privezentsev, R

2009-01-01

Detailed measurements of the magnetic and transport properties of single crystals of La 1-x Ca x MnO 3 (0.18 ≤ x ≤ 0.27) are summarized, and lead to the following conclusions. While temperature-dependent (magneto-) resistance measurements narrow the compositionally modulated metal-insulator (M-I) transition to lie between 0.19 ≤ x c ≤ 0.20 in the series studied, comparisons between the latter magnetic data provide the first unequivocal demonstration that (i) the presence of Griffiths-phase-like (GP) features do not guarantee colossal magnetoresistance (CMR), while confirming (ii) that neither are the appearance of such features a prerequisite for CMR. These data also reveal that (iii) whereas continuous magnetic transitions occur for 0.18 ≤ x ≤ 0.25, the universality class of these transitions belongs to that of a nearest-neighbour 3D Heisenberg model only for x≤0.20, beyond which complications due to GP-like behaviour occur. The implications of the variation (or lack thereof) in critical exponents and particularly critical amplitudes and temperatures across the compositionally mediated M-I transition support the assertion that the dominant mechanism underlying ferromagnetism across the M-I transition changes from ferromagnetic super-exchange (SE) stabilized by orbital ordering in the insulating phase to double-exchange (DE) in the orbitally disordered metallic regime. The variations in the acoustic spin-wave stiffness, D, and the coercive field, H C , support this conclusion. These SE and DE interaction mechanisms are demonstrated to not only belong to the same universality class but are also characterized by comparable coupling strengths. Nevertheless, their percolation thresholds are manifestly different in this system.

Reentrant Superspin Glass Phase in a La_{0.82}Ca_{0.18}MnO_{3} Ferromagnetic Insulator

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P. Anil Kumar

2014-03-01

Full Text Available We report results of the magnetization and ac susceptibility measurements down to very low fields on a single crystal of the perovskite manganite, La_{0.82}Ca_{0.18}MnO_{3}. This composition falls in the intriguing ferromagnetic insulator region of the manganite phase diagram. In contrast to earlier beliefs, our investigations reveal that magnetically (and in every other sense, this is a single-phase system with a ferromagnetic ordering temperature of around 170 K. However, this ferromagnetic state is magnetically frustrated, and the system exhibits pronounced glassy dynamics below 90 K. Based on measured dynamical properties, we propose that this quasi-long-ranged ferromagnetic phase, and the associated superspin glass behavior, is the true magnetic state of the system, rather than being a macroscopic mixture of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic phases, as often suggested. Our results provide an understanding of the quantum phase transition from an antiferromagnetic insulator to a ferromagnetic metal via this ferromagnetic insulating state as a function of x in La_{1−x}Ca_{x}MnO_{3}, in terms of the possible formation of magnetic polarons.

Stability of Transition-metal Carbides in Liquid Phase Reactions Relevant for Biomass-Based Conversion

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Souza Macêdo, L.; Stellwagen, D.R.; Teixeira da Silva, V.; Bitter, J.H.

2015-01-01

Transition-metal carbides have been employed for biobased conversions aiming to replace the rare noble metals. However, when reactions are in liquid phase, many authors have observed catalyst deactivation. The main routes of deactivation in liquid phase biobased conversions are coke deposition,

A highly efficient surface plasmon polaritons excitation achieved with a metal-coupled metal-insulator-metal waveguide

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hongyan Yang

2014-12-01

Full Text Available We propose a novel metal-coupled metal-insulator-metal (MC-MIM waveguide which can achieve a highly efficient surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs excitation. The MC-MIM waveguide is formed by inserting a thin metal film in the insulator of an MIM. The introduction of the metal film, functioning as an SPPs coupler, provides a space for the interaction between SPPs and a confined electromagnetic field of the intermediate metal surface, which makes energy change and phase transfer in the metal-dielectric interface, due to the joint action of incomplete electrostatic shielding effect and SPPs coupling. Impacts of the metal film with different materials and various thickness on SPPs excitation are investigated. It is shown that the highest efficient SPPs excitation is obtained when the gold film thickness is 60 nm. The effect of refractive index of upper and lower symmetric dielectric layer on SPPs excitation is also discussed. The result shows that the decay value of refractive index is 0.3. Our results indicate that this proposed MC-MIM waveguide may offer great potential in designing a new SPPs source.

Magnetic and transport properties of Ni2MnGa-BaTiO3 metal-insulator particulate composite with percolation threshold

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Won, C.J.; Kambale, R.C.; Hur, N.

2011-01-01

Highlights: → The Ni 2 MnGa-BaTiO 3 type composites were first time prepared by solid state reaction. → Temperature dependent magnetic properties reveal two kinds of transitions in these composite. → The present materials show negative magnetoresistance effect. → The present studies on magnetic and electrical transport of metal/insulator (NMG/BTO) composites shows the resistivity change associated to filamentary conducting path at percolation threshold. - Abstract: Here we report the magnetic and transport properties of the metal/insulator (f NMG )Ni 2 MnGa/(1 - f NMG )BaTiO 3 composites. The X-ray diffraction study confirms the formation of both the phases in composite. The microstructure reveals that the conducting Ni 2 MnGa particles are well dispersed in an insulating BaTiO 3 matrix. Temperature dependent magnetization shows two transitions one above 300 K and other below 150 K. The temperature dependence resistivity near the percolation threshold f NMG = 0.4 had drastic changes which is higher than the f NMG = 0.5. Also the negative magnetoresistance effect was observed for the studied materials. We suggest that magnetic and transport properties at the percolation threshold can be adjusted by the strain from the surrounding insulator particle.

Quantum magnetotransport properties of ultrathin topological insulator films

KAUST Repository

Tahir, M.

2013-01-30

We study the quantum magnetotransport in ultrathin topological insulator films in an external magnetic field considering hybridization between the upper and lower surfaces of the film. We investigate the two possible mechanisms for splitting of Landau levels, Zeeman and hybridization effects, and show that their interplay leads to minima in the collisional and Hall conductivities with a metal-to-insulator phase transition at the charge neutrality point. Hall plateaus arise at unusual multiples of e2/h . Evidence of a quantum phase transition for the zeroth and splitting of the higher Landau levels is found from the temperature and magnetic field dependences of the transport.

Quantum magnetotransport properties of ultrathin topological insulator films

KAUST Repository

Tahir, M.; Sabeeh, K.; Schwingenschlö gl, Udo

2013-01-01

We study the quantum magnetotransport in ultrathin topological insulator films in an external magnetic field considering hybridization between the upper and lower surfaces of the film. We investigate the two possible mechanisms for splitting of Landau levels, Zeeman and hybridization effects, and show that their interplay leads to minima in the collisional and Hall conductivities with a metal-to-insulator phase transition at the charge neutrality point. Hall plateaus arise at unusual multiples of e2/h . Evidence of a quantum phase transition for the zeroth and splitting of the higher Landau levels is found from the temperature and magnetic field dependences of the transport.

Pressure-induced irreversible metallization accompanying the phase transitions in S b2S3

Science.gov (United States)

Dai, Lidong; Liu, Kaixiang; Li, Heping; Wu, Lei; Hu, Haiying; Zhuang, Yukai; Yang, Linfei; Pu, Chang; Liu, Pengfei

2018-01-01

We have revealed S b2S3 to have two phase transitions and to undergo metallization using a diamond anvil cell at around 5.0, 15.0, and 34.0 GPa, respectively. These results were obtained on the basis of high-pressure Raman spectroscopy, temperature-dependent conductivity measurements, atomic force microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, and first-principles calculations. The first phase transition at ˜5.0 GPa is an isostructural phase transition, which is manifested in noticeable changes in five Raman-active modes and the slope of the conductivity because of a change in the electronic structure. The second pressure-induced phase transition was characterized by a discontinuous change in the slope of conductivity and a new low-intensity Raman mode at ˜15.0 GPa . Furthermore, a semiconductor-to-metal transition was found at ˜34.0 GPa , which was accompanied by irreversible metallization, and it could be attributed to the permanently plastic deformation of the interlayer spacing. This high-pressure behavior of S b2S3 will help us to understand the universal crystal structure evolution and electrical characteristics for A2B3 -type compounds, and to facilitate their application in electronic devices.

Dynamical Conductivity across the Disorder-Tuned Superconductor-Insulator Transition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mason Swanson

2014-04-01

Full Text Available We calculate the dynamical conductivity σ(ω and the bosonic (pair spectral function P(ω from quantum Monte Carlo simulations across clean and disorder-driven superconductor-insulator transitions (SITs. We identify characteristic energy scales in the superconducting and insulating phases that vanish at the transition due to enhanced quantum fluctuations, despite the persistence of a robust fermionic gap across the SIT. Disorder leads to enhanced absorption in σ(ω at low frequencies compared to the SIT in a clean system. Disorder also expands the quantum critical region, due to a change in the universality class, with an underlying T=0 critical point with a universal low-frequency conductivity σ^{*}≃0.5(4e^{2}/h.

Unconventional Topological Phase Transition in Two-Dimensional Systems with Space-Time Inversion Symmetry

Science.gov (United States)

Ahn, Junyeong; Yang, Bohm-Jung

2017-04-01

We study a topological phase transition between a normal insulator and a quantum spin Hall insulator in two-dimensional (2D) systems with time-reversal and twofold rotation symmetries. Contrary to the case of ordinary time-reversal invariant systems, where a direct transition between two insulators is generally predicted, we find that the topological phase transition in systems with an additional twofold rotation symmetry is mediated by an emergent stable 2D Weyl semimetal phase between two insulators. Here the central role is played by the so-called space-time inversion symmetry, the combination of time-reversal and twofold rotation symmetries, which guarantees the quantization of the Berry phase around a 2D Weyl point even in the presence of strong spin-orbit coupling. Pair creation and pair annihilation of Weyl points accompanying partner exchange between different pairs induces a jump of a 2D Z2 topological invariant leading to a topological phase transition. According to our theory, the topological phase transition in HgTe /CdTe quantum well structure is mediated by a stable 2D Weyl semimetal phase because the quantum well, lacking inversion symmetry intrinsically, has twofold rotation about the growth direction. Namely, the HgTe /CdTe quantum well can show 2D Weyl semimetallic behavior within a small but finite interval in the thickness of HgTe layers between a normal insulator and a quantum spin Hall insulator. We also propose that few-layer black phosphorus under perpendicular electric field is another candidate system to observe the unconventional topological phase transition mechanism accompanied by the emerging 2D Weyl semimetal phase protected by space-time inversion symmetry.

First-principles interatomic potentials for transition-metal aluminides. III. Extension to ternary phase diagrams

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Widom, Mike; Al-Lehyani, Ibrahim; Moriarty, John A.

2000-01-01

Modeling structural and mechanical properties of intermetallic compounds and alloys requires detailed knowledge of their interatomic interactions. The first two papers of this series [Phys. Rev. B 56, 7905 (1997); 58, 8967 (1998)] derived first-principles interatomic potentials for transition-metal (TM) aluminides using generalized pseudopotential theory (GPT). Those papers focused on binary alloys of aluminum with first-row transition metals and assessed the ability of GPT potentials to reproduce and elucidate the alloy phase diagrams of Al-Co and Al-Ni. This paper addresses the phase diagrams of the binary alloy Al-Cu and the ternary systems Al-Co-Cu and Al-Co-Ni, using GPT pair potentials calculated in the limit of vanishing transition-metal concentration. Despite this highly simplifying approximation, we find rough agreement with the known low-temperature phase diagrams, up to 50% total TM concentration provided the Co fraction is below 25%. Full composition-dependent potentials and many-body interactions would be required to correct deficiencies at higher Co concentration. Outside this troublesome region, the experimentally determined stable and metastable phases all lie on or near the convex hull of a scatter plot of energy versus composition. We verify, qualitatively, reported solubility ranges extending binary alloys into the ternary diagram in both Al-Co-Cu and Al-Co-Ni. Finally, we reproduce previously conjectured transition-metal positions in the decagonal quasicrystal phase. (c) 2000 The American Physical Society

Electronic phase separation in insulating (Ga, Mn) As with low compensation: super-paramagnetism and hopping conduction

Science.gov (United States)

Yuan, Ye; Wang, Mao; Xu, Chi; Hübner, René; Böttger, Roman; Jakiela, Rafal; Helm, Manfred; Sawicki, Maciej; Zhou, Shengqiang

2018-03-01

In the present work, low compensated insulating (Ga,Mn)As with 0.7% Mn is obtained by ion implantation combined with pulsed laser melting. The sample shows variable-range hopping transport behavior with a Coulomb gap in the vicinity of the Fermi energy, and the activation energy is reduced by an external magnetic field. A blocking super-paramagnetism is observed rather than ferromagnetism. Below the blocking temperature, the sample exhibits a colossal negative magnetoresistance. Our studies confirm that the disorder-induced electronic phase separation occurs in (Ga,Mn)As samples with a Mn concentration in the insulator-metal transition regime, and it can account for the observed superparamagnetism and the colossal magnetoresistance.

Enhanced ferromagnetism, metal-insulator transition, and large magnetoresistance in La1-xCaxMn1-xRuxO3 free of eg-orbital double-exchange

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, M. F.; Du, Z. Z.; Liu, H. M.; Li, X.; Yan, Z. B.; Dong, S.; Liu, J.-M.

2014-03-01

The structure, ionic valences, magnetism, and magneto-transport behaviors of mixed valence oxides La1-xCaxMn1-xRuxO3 are systematically investigated. The simultaneous substitutions of La3+ and Mn3+ ions by Ca2+ and Ru4+, respectively, are confirmed by the structural and ionic valence characterizations, excluding the presence of Mn4+ and Ru3+ ions. The enhanced ferromagnetism, induced metal-insulator transition, and remarkable magnetoresistance effect are demonstrated when the substitution level x is lower than ˜0.6, in spite of the absence of the Mn3+-Ru4+ eg-orbital double-exchange. These anomalous magnetotransport effects are discussed based on the competing multifold interactions associated with the Mn3+-Ru4+ super-exchange and strong Ru4+-Ru4+ hopping, while the origins for the metal-insulator transition and magnetoresistance effect remain to be clarified.

Spin dynamics of the Kondo insulator CeNiSn approaching the metallic phase

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Schröder, A.; Aeppli, G.; Mason, T.E.

1997-01-01

The spin dynamics of Kondo insulators has been studied by high-resolution magnetic neutron spectroscopy at a triple-axes spectrometer on CeNi1-xCuxSn single crystals using a vertical 9 T magnet. While upon doping (x = 0.13) the spin gap of the Kondo insulator CeNiSn collapses at the transition to...

The one-particle scenario for the metal-insulator transition in two-dimensional systems at T = 0

CERN Document Server

Tarasov, Y V

2003-01-01

The conductance of bounded disordered electron systems is calculated by reducing the original dynamic problem of arbitrary dimensionality to a set of strictly one-dimensional problems for one-particle mode propagators. The metallic ground state of a two-dimensional conductor, which is considered as a limiting case of three-dimensional quantum waveguide, is shown to result from its multi-modeness. As the waveguide thickness is reduced, e.g., by applying a 'pressing' potential, the electron system undergoes a set of continuous phase transitions related to discrete variations of the number of extended modes. The closing of the last current carrying mode is regarded as a phase transition of the electron system from metallic to dielectric state. The obtained results agree qualitatively with the observed 'anomalies' of resistivity of different two-dimensional electron and hole systems.

Ground state oxygen holes and the metal-insulator transition in rare earth nickelates

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Schmitt, Thorsten; Bisogni, Valentina; Huang, Yaobo; Strocov, Vladimir [Research Department Synchrotron Radiation and Nanotechnology, Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen PSI (Switzerland); Catalano, Sara; Gibert, Marta; Scherwitzl, Raoul; Zubko, Pavlo; Triscone, Jean-Marc [Departement de Physique de la Matiere Condensee, University of Geneva (Switzerland); Green, Robert J.; Balandeh, Shadi; Sawatzky, George [Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver (Canada)

2015-07-01

Perovskite rare-earth (Re) nickelates ReNiO{sub 3} continue to attract a lot of interest owing to their intriguing properties like a sharp metal to insulator transition (MIT), unusual magnetic order and expected superconductivity in specifically tuned super-lattices. Full understanding of these materials, however, is hampered by the difficulties in describing their electronic ground state (GS). From X-ray absorption (XAS) at the Ni 2p{sub 3/2} edge of thin films of NdNiO{sub 3} and corresponding RIXS maps vs. incident and transferred photon energies we reveal that the electronic GS configuration of NdNiO{sub 3} is composed of delocalized and localized components. Our study conveys that a Ni 3d{sup 8}-like configuration with holes at oxygen takes on the leading role in the GS and the MIT of ReNiO{sub 3} as proposed by recent model theories.

Characterization of the Quantized Hall Insulator Phase in the Quantum Critical Regime

OpenAIRE

Song, Juntao; Prodan, Emil

2013-01-01

The conductivity $\\sigma$ and resistivity $\\rho$ tensors of the disordered Hofstadter model are mapped as functions of Fermi energy $E_F$ and temperature $T$ in the quantum critical regime of the plateau-insulator transition (PIT). The finite-size errors are eliminated by using the non-commutative Kubo-formula. The results reproduce all the key experimental characteristics of this transition in Integer Quantum Hall (IQHE) systems. In particular, the Quantized Hall Insulator (QHI) phase is det...

Insulator-metal transition of fluid molecular hydrogen

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ross, M.

1996-01-01

Dynamically compressed fluid hydrogen shows evidence for metallization at the relatively low pressure of 140 GPa (1.4 Mbar) while experiments on solid hydrogen made in a diamond-anvil cell have failed to detect any evidence for gap closure up to a pressure of 230 GPa (2.3 Mbar). Two possible mechanisms for metal- liclike resistivity are put forward. The first is that as a consequence of the large thermal disorder in the fluid (kT∼0.2 endash 0.3 eV) short-range molecular interactions lead to band tailing that extends the band edge into the gap, resulting in closure at a lower pressure than in the solid. The second mechanism argues that molecular dissociation creates H atoms that behave similar to n-type donors in a heavily doped semiconductor and undergo a nonmetal-metal Mott-type transition. copyright 1996 The American Physical Society

Metal-insulator transition upon heating and negative-differential-resistive-switching induced by self-heating in BaCo{sub 0.9}Ni{sub 0.1}S{sub 1.8}

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fisher, B.; Genossar, J.; Chashka, K. B.; Patlagan, L.; Reisner, G. M. [Physics Department, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000 (Israel)

2014-04-14

The layered compound BaCo{sub 1−x}Ni{sub x}S{sub 2−y} (0.05 < x < 0.2 and 0.05 < y < 0.2) exhibits an unusual first-order structural and electronic phase transition from a low-T monoclinic paramagnetic metal to a high-T tetragonal antiferromagnetic insulator around 200 K with huge hysteresis (∼40 K) and large volume change (∼0.01). Here, we report on unusual voltage-controlled resistive switching followed by current-controlled resistive switching induced by self-heating in polycrystalline BaCo{sub 1−x}Ni{sub x}S{sub 2−y} (nominal x = 0.1 and y = 0.2). These were due to the steep metal to insulator transition upon heating followed by the activated behavior of the resistivity above the transition. The major role of Joule heating in switching is supported by the absence of nonlinearity in the current as function of voltage, I(V), obtained in pulsed measurements, in the range of electric fields relevant to d.c. measurements. The voltage-controlled negative differential resistance around the threshold for switching was explained by a simple model of self-heating. The main difficulty in modeling I(V) from the samples resistance as function of temperature R(T) was the progressive increase of R(T), and to a lesser extend the decrease of the resistance jumps at the transitions, caused by the damage induced by cycling through the transitions by heating or self-heating. This was dealt with by following systematically R(T) over many cycles and by using the data of R(T) in the heating cycle closest to that of the self-heating one.

Reliability of the one-crossing approximation in describing the Mott transition

Science.gov (United States)

Vildosola, V.; Pourovskii, L. V.; Manuel, L. O.; Roura-Bas, P.

2015-12-01

We assess the reliability of the one-crossing approximation (OCA) approach in a quantitative description of the Mott transition in the framework of the dynamical mean field theory (DMFT). The OCA approach has been applied in conjunction with DMFT to a number of heavy-fermion, actinide, transition metal compounds and nanoscale systems. However, several recent studies in the framework of impurity models pointed out serious deficiencies of OCA and raised questions regarding its reliability. Here we consider a single band Hubbard model on the Bethe lattice at finite temperatures and compare the results of OCA to those of a numerically exact quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) method. The temperature-local repulsion U phase diagram for the particle-hole symmetric case obtained by OCA is in good agreement with that of QMC, with the metal-insulator transition captured very well. We find, however, that the insulator to metal transition is shifted to higher values of U and, simultaneously, correlations in the metallic phase are significantly overestimated. This counter-intuitive behaviour is due to simultaneous underestimations of the Kondo scale in the metallic phase and the size of the insulating gap. We trace the underestimation of the insulating gap to that of the second moment of the high-frequency expansion of the impurity spectral density. Calculations of the system away from the particle-hole symmetric case are also presented and discussed.

Composition-induced structural, electrical, and magnetic phase transitions in AX-type mixed-valence cobalt oxynitride epitaxial thin films

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Takahashi, Jumpei; Oka, Daichi [Department of Chemistry, School of Science, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-0033 (Japan); Kanagawa Academy of Science and Technology (KAST), 3-2-1 Sakado, Takatsu, Kawasaki 213-0012 (Japan); Hirose, Yasushi, E-mail: hirose@chem.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp; Yang, Chang; Fukumura, Tomoteru; Hasegawa, Tetsuya [Department of Chemistry, School of Science, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-0033 (Japan); Kanagawa Academy of Science and Technology (KAST), 3-2-1 Sakado, Takatsu, Kawasaki 213-0012 (Japan); CREST, Japan Science and Technology Agency, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-0033 (Japan); Nakao, Shoichiro [Kanagawa Academy of Science and Technology (KAST), 3-2-1 Sakado, Takatsu, Kawasaki 213-0012 (Japan); CREST, Japan Science and Technology Agency, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo, Tokyo 113-0033 (Japan); Harayama, Isao; Sekiba, Daiichiro [University of Tsukuba Tandem Accelerator Complex (UTTAC), 1-1-1 Tennoudai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8577 (Japan)

2015-12-07

Synthesis of mid- to late-transition metal oxynitrides is generally difficult by conventional thermal ammonolysis because of thermal instability. In this letter, we synthesized epitaxial thin films of AX-type phase-pure cobalt oxynitrides (CoO{sub x}N{sub y}) by using nitrogen-plasma-assisted pulsed laser deposition and investigated their structural, electrical, and magnetic properties. The CoO{sub x}N{sub y} thin films with 0 ≤ y/(x + y) ≤ 0.63 grown on MgO (100) substrates showed a structural phase transition from rock salt (RS) to zinc blend at the nitrogen content y/(x + y) ∼ 0.5. As the nitrogen content increased, the room-temperature electrical resistivity of the CoO{sub x}N{sub y} thin films monotonically decreased from the order of 10{sup 5} Ω cm to 10{sup −4} Ω cm. Furthermore, we observed an insulator-to-metal transition at y/(x + y) ∼ 0.34 in the RS-CoO{sub x}N{sub y} phase, which has not yet been reported in Co{sup 2+}/Co{sup 3+} mixed-valence cobalt oxides with octahedral coordination. The low resistivity in the RS-CoO{sub x}N{sub y} phase, on the 10{sup −3} Ω cm order, may have originated from the intermediate spin state of Co{sup 3+} stabilized by the lowered crystal field symmetry of the CoO{sub 6−n}N{sub n} octahedra (n = 1, 2,…5). Magnetization measurements suggested that a magnetic phase transition occurred in the RS-CoO{sub x}N{sub y} films during the insulator-to-metal transition. These results demonstrate that low-temperature epitaxial growth is a promising approach for exploring novel electronic functionalities in oxynitrides.

Composition-induced structural, electrical, and magnetic phase transitions in AX-type mixed-valence cobalt oxynitride epitaxial thin films

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Takahashi, Jumpei; Oka, Daichi; Hirose, Yasushi; Yang, Chang; Fukumura, Tomoteru; Hasegawa, Tetsuya; Nakao, Shoichiro; Harayama, Isao; Sekiba, Daiichiro

2015-01-01

Synthesis of mid- to late-transition metal oxynitrides is generally difficult by conventional thermal ammonolysis because of thermal instability. In this letter, we synthesized epitaxial thin films of AX-type phase-pure cobalt oxynitrides (CoO x N y ) by using nitrogen-plasma-assisted pulsed laser deposition and investigated their structural, electrical, and magnetic properties. The CoO x N y thin films with 0 ≤ y/(x + y) ≤ 0.63 grown on MgO (100) substrates showed a structural phase transition from rock salt (RS) to zinc blend at the nitrogen content y/(x + y) ∼ 0.5. As the nitrogen content increased, the room-temperature electrical resistivity of the CoO x N y thin films monotonically decreased from the order of 10 5  Ω cm to 10 −4  Ω cm. Furthermore, we observed an insulator-to-metal transition at y/(x + y) ∼ 0.34 in the RS-CoO x N y phase, which has not yet been reported in Co 2+ /Co 3+ mixed-valence cobalt oxides with octahedral coordination. The low resistivity in the RS-CoO x N y phase, on the 10 −3  Ω cm order, may have originated from the intermediate spin state of Co 3+ stabilized by the lowered crystal field symmetry of the CoO 6−n N n octahedra (n = 1, 2,…5). Magnetization measurements suggested that a magnetic phase transition occurred in the RS-CoO x N y films during the insulator-to-metal transition. These results demonstrate that low-temperature epitaxial growth is a promising approach for exploring novel electronic functionalities in oxynitrides

Evidence for photo-induced monoclinic metallic VO2 under high pressure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hsieh, Wen-Pin; Mao, Wendy L.; Trigo, Mariano; Reis, David A.; Andrea Artioli, Gianluca; Malavasi, Lorenzo

2014-01-01

We combine ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy with a diamond-anvil cell to decouple the insulator-metal electronic transition from the lattice symmetry changing structural transition in the archetypal strongly correlated material vanadium dioxide. Coherent phonon spectroscopy enables tracking of the photo-excited phonon vibrational frequencies of the low temperature, monoclinic (M 1 )-insulating phase that transforms into the metallic, tetragonal rutile structured phase at high temperature or via non-thermal photo-excitations. We find that in contrast with ambient pressure experiments where strong photo-excitation promptly induces the electronic transition along with changes in the lattice symmetry, at high pressure, the coherent phonons of the monoclinic (M 1 ) phase are still clearly observed upon the photo-driven phase transition to a metallic state. These results demonstrate the possibility of synthesizing and studying transient phases under extreme conditions

Role of temperature-dependent O-p-Fe-d hybridization parameter in the metal-insulator transition of Fe3O4: a theoretical study

Science.gov (United States)

Fauzi, A. D.; Majidi, M. A.; Rusydi, A.

2017-04-01

We propose a simple tight-binding based model for Fe3O4 that captures the preference of ferrimagnetic over ferromagnetic spin configuration of the system. Our model is consistent with previous theoretical and experimental studies suggesting that the system is half metallic, in which spin polarized electrons hop only among the Fe B sites. To address the metal-insulator transition (MIT) we propose that the strong correlation among electrons, which may also be influenced by the electron-phonon interactions, manifest as the temperature-dependence of the O-p-Fe-d hybridization parameter, particularly Fe-d belonging to one of the Fe B sites (denoted as {t}{{FeB}-{{O}}}(2)). By proposing that this parameter increases as the temperature decreases, our density-of-states calculation successfully captures a gap opening at the Fermi level, transforming the system from half metal to insulator. Within this model along with the corresponding choice of parameters and a certain profile of the temperature dependence of {t}{{FeB}-{{O}}}(2), we calculate the resistivity of the system as a function of temperature. Our calculation result reveals the drastic uprising trend of the resistivity profile as the temperature decreases, with the MIT transition temperature located around 100 K, which is in agreement with experimental data.

Correlated structural and electronic phase transformations in transition metal chalcogenide under high pressure

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Li, Chunyu, E-mail: licy@hpstar.ac.cn, E-mail: yanhao@hpstar.ac.cn; Ke, Feng; Yu, Zhenhai; Chen, Zhiqiang; Yan, Hao, E-mail: licy@hpstar.ac.cn, E-mail: yanhao@hpstar.ac.cn [Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research, Shanghai 201203 (China); Hu, Qingyang [Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research, Shanghai 201203 (China); Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC 20015 (United States); Zhao, Jinggeng [Natural Science Research Center, Academy of Fundamental and Interdisciplinary Sciences, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150080 (China)

2016-04-07

Here, we report comprehensive studies on the high-pressure structural and electrical transport properties of the layered transition metal chalcogenide (Cr{sub 2}S{sub 3}) up to 36.3 GPa. A structural phase transition was observed in the rhombohedral Cr{sub 2}S{sub 3} near 16.5 GPa by the synchrotron angle dispersive X-ray diffraction measurement using a diamond anvil cell. Through in situ resistance measurement, the electric resistance value was detected to decrease by an order of three over the pressure range of 7–15 GPa coincided with the structural phase transition. Measurements on the temperature dependence of resistivity indicate that it is a semiconductor-to-metal transition in nature. The results were also confirmed by the electronic energy band calculations. Above results may shed a light on optimizing the performance of Cr{sub 2}S{sub 3} based applications under extreme conditions.

Excited State Dynamics and Semiconductor-to-Metallic Phase Transition of VO2 Thin Film

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Liu, Huimin

2004-01-01

.... Vanadium dioxide shows an ultrafast, passive phase transition (PT) from a monoclinic semiconductor phase to a metallic tetragonal rutile structure when the sample temperature is above 68 degrees C...

For progress in natural science: Materials international investigations of structural phase transformation and THz properties across metal–insulator transition in VO2/Al2O3 epitaxial films

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mengmeng Yang

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Vanadium dioxide (VO2 epitaxial thin films on (0001-oriented Al2O3 substrates were prepared using radio frequency (RF magnetron sputtering techniques. To study the metal-insulator-transition (MIT mechanism and extend the applications of VO2 epitaxial films at terahertz (THz band, temperature-dependent X-ray diffraction (XRD and THz time domain spectroscopy of the VO2 epitaxial films were performed. Both the lattice constants and THz transmission exhibited a similar and sharp transition that was similar to that observed for the electrical resistance. Consequently, the MIT of the VO2/Al2O3 epitaxial films should be co-triggered by the structural phase transition and electronic transition. Moreover, the very large resistance change (on the order of ~103 and THz response (with a transmission modulation ratio of ~87% in the VO2/Al2O3 epitaxial heterostructures are promising for electrical switch and electro-optical device applications.

Reduction of the Jahn-Teller distortion at the insulator-to-metal transition in mixed valence manganites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Garcia-Munoz, J.L.; Suaaidi, M.; Fontcuberta, J.; Rodriguez-Carvajal, J.

1997-01-01

The insulator-to-metal transition in the manganite La 0.52 Y 0.15 Ca 0.33 MnO 3 (T IM ∼115 K) has been studied by high-resolution neutron powder diffraction. The cell volume contraction at the Curie point is accompanied by a remarkable decrease of the Jahn-Teller distortion in MnO 6 octahedra. The change of the Mn-O bond lengths at T IM is anisotropic and brings about a drop out of the basal-plane collective distortion mode Q 2 , proposed to be the deformation responsible for the band split of e g↑ orbitals. This is consistent with the double-exchange picture, and precludes simple ferromagnetic exchange. copyright 1997 The American Physical Society

Open volume defects and magnetic phase transition in Fe{sub 60}Al{sub 40} transition metal aluminide

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Liedke, M. O., E-mail: m.liedke@hzdr.de; Anwand, W.; Butterling, M.; Wagner, A. [Institute of Radiation Physics, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden - Rossendorf, Bautzner Landstraße 400, 01328 Dresden (Germany); Bali, R.; Cornelius, S.; Potzger, K. [Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden - Rossendorf, Bautzner Landstraße 400, 01328 Dresden (Germany); Trinh, T. T. [Institute of Radiation Physics, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden - Rossendorf, Bautzner Landstraße 400, 01328 Dresden (Germany); Technical University Dresden, Helmholtzstr. 10, 01609 Dresden (Germany); Salamon, S.; Walecki, D.; Smekhova, A.; Wende, H. [Faculty of Physics and Center for Nanointegration Duisburg-Essen (CENIDE), University of Duisburg-Essen, Lotharstraße 1, 47048 Duisburg (Germany)

2015-04-28

Magnetic phase transition in the Fe{sub 60}Al{sub 40} transition metal aluminide from the ferromagnetic disordered A2-phase to the paramagnetic ordered B2-phase as a function of annealing up to 1000 °C has been investigated by means of magneto-optical and spectroscopy techniques, i.e., Kerr effect, positron annihilation, and Mössbauer spectroscopy. The positron annihilation spectroscopy has been performed in-situ sequentially after each annealing step at the Apparatus for In-situ Defect Analysis that is a unique tool combining positron annihilation spectroscopy with temperature treatment, material evaporation, ion irradiation, and sheet resistance measurement techniques. The overall goal was to investigate the importance of the open volume defects onto the magnetic phase transition. No evidence of variation in the vacancy concentration in matching the magnetic phase transition temperature range (400–600 °C) has been found, whereas higher temperatures showed an increase in the vacancy concentration.

Band gap tuning in transition metal oxides by site-specific substitution

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Ho Nyung; Chisholm, Jr., Matthew F; Jellison, Jr., Gerald Earle; Singh, David J; Choi, Woo Seok

2013-12-24

A transition metal oxide insulator composition having a tuned band gap includes a transition metal oxide having a perovskite or a perovskite-like crystalline structure. The transition metal oxide includes at least one first element selected form the group of Bi, Ca, Ba, Sr, Li, Na, Mg, K, Pb, and Pr; and at least one second element selected from the group of Ti, Al, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zr, Nb, Mo, Ru, Rh, Hf, Ta, W, Re, Os, Ir, and Pt. At least one correlated insulator is integrated into the crystalline structure, including REMO.sub.3, wherein RE is at least one Rare Earth element, and wherein M is at least one element selected from the group of Co, V, Cr, Ni, Mn, and Fe. The composition is characterized by a band gap of less of 4.5 eV.

Evidence for photo-induced monoclinic metallic VO{sub 2} under high pressure

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hsieh, Wen-Pin, E-mail: wphsieh@stanford.edu; Mao, Wendy L. [Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025 (United States); Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305 (United States); Trigo, Mariano [Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025 (United States); Stanford PULSE Institute, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025 (United States); Reis, David A. [Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025 (United States); Stanford PULSE Institute, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, California 94025 (United States); Department of Photon Science and Applied Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305 (United States); Andrea Artioli, Gianluca; Malavasi, Lorenzo [Dipartimento di Chimica, Sezione di Chimica Fisica, INSTM (UdR Pavia), Università di Pavia, Viale Taramelli 16, 27100 Pavia (Italy)

2014-01-13

We combine ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy with a diamond-anvil cell to decouple the insulator-metal electronic transition from the lattice symmetry changing structural transition in the archetypal strongly correlated material vanadium dioxide. Coherent phonon spectroscopy enables tracking of the photo-excited phonon vibrational frequencies of the low temperature, monoclinic (M{sub 1})-insulating phase that transforms into the metallic, tetragonal rutile structured phase at high temperature or via non-thermal photo-excitations. We find that in contrast with ambient pressure experiments where strong photo-excitation promptly induces the electronic transition along with changes in the lattice symmetry, at high pressure, the coherent phonons of the monoclinic (M{sub 1}) phase are still clearly observed upon the photo-driven phase transition to a metallic state. These results demonstrate the possibility of synthesizing and studying transient phases under extreme conditions.

Sharpness and intensity modulation of the metal-insulator transition in ultrathin VO2 films by interfacial structure manipulation

Science.gov (United States)

McGee, Ryan; Goswami, Ankur; Pal, Soupitak; Schofield, Kalvin; Bukhari, Syed Asad Manzoor; Thundat, Thomas

2018-03-01

Vanadium dioxide (VO2) undergoes a structural transformation from monoclinic (insulator) to tetragonal (metallic) upon heating above 340 K, accompanied by abrupt changes to its electronic, optical, and mechanical properties. Not only is this transition scientifically intriguing, but there are also numerous applications in sensing, memory, and optoelectronics. Here we investigate the effect different substrates and the processing conditions have on the characteristics metal-insulator transition (MIT), and how the properties can be tuned for specific applications. VO2 thin films were grown on c -plane sapphire (0001) and p-type silicon by pulsed laser deposition. High-resolution x-ray diffraction along with transmission electron microscopy reveals textured epitaxial growth on sapphire by domain-matching epitaxy, while the presence of a native oxide layer on silicon prevented any preferential growth resulting in a polycrystalline film. An orientation relationship of (010)VO2|| (0001)Al 2O3 was established for VO2 grown on sapphire, while no such relationship was found for VO2 grown on silicon. Surface-energy minimization is the driving force behind grain growth, as the lowest energy VO2 plane grew on silicon, while on sapphire the desire for epitaxial growth was dominant. Polycrystallinity of films grown on silicon caused a weaker and less prominent MIT than observed on sapphire, whose MIT was higher in magnitude and steeper in slope. The position of the MIT was shown to depend on the competing effects of misfit strain and grain growth. Higher deposition temperatures caused an increase in the MIT, while compressive strain resulted in a decreased MIT.

Mott-Hubbard transition and Anderson localization: A generalized dynamical mean-field theory approach

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kuchinskii, E. Z.; Nekrasov, I. A.; Sadovskii, M. V.

2008-01-01

The DOS, the dynamic (optical) conductivity, and the phase diagram of a strongly correlated and strongly disordered paramagnetic Anderson-Hubbard model are analyzed within the generalized dynamical mean field theory (DMFT + Σ approximation). Strong correlations are taken into account by the DMFT, and disorder is taken into account via an appropriate generalization of the self-consistent theory of localization. The DMFT effective single-impurity problem is solved by a numerical renormalization group (NRG); we consider the three-dimensional system with a semielliptic DOS. The correlated metal, Mott insulator, and correlated Anderson insulator phases are identified via the evolution of the DOS and dynamic conductivity, demonstrating both the Mott-Hubbard and Anderson metal-insulator transition and allowing the construction of the complete zero-temperature phase diagram of the Anderson-Hubbard model. Rather unusual is the possibility of a disorder-induced Mott insulator-to-metal transition

Metal-semiconductor phase transition of order arrays of VO2 nanocrystals

Science.gov (United States)

Lopez, Rene; Suh, Jae; Feldman, Leonard; Haglund, Richard

2004-03-01

The study of solid-state phase transitions at nanometer length scales provides new insights into the effects of material size on the mechanisms of structural transformations. Such research also opens the door to new applications, either because materials properties are modified as a function of particle size, or because the nanoparticles interact with a surrounding matrix material, or with each other. In this paper, we describe the formation of vanadium dioxide nanoparticles in silicon substrates by pulsed laser deposition of ion beam lithographically selected sites and thermal processing. We observe the collective behavior of 50 nm diameter VO2 oblate nanoparticles, 10 nm high, and ordered in square arrays with arbitrary lattice constant. The metal-semiconductor-transition of the VO2 precipitates shows different features in each lattice spacing substrate. The materials are characterized by electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, Rutherford backscattering. The features of the phase transition are studied via infrared optical spectroscopy. Of particular interest are the enhanced scattering and the surface plasmon resonance when the particles reach the metallic state. This resonance amplifies the optical contrast in the range of near-infrared optical communication wavelengths and it is altered by the particle-particle coupling as in the case of noble metals. In addition the VO2 nanoparticles exhibit sharp transitions with up to 50 K of hysteresis, one of the largest values ever reported for this transition. The optical properties of the VO2 nanoarrays are correlated with the size of the precipitates and their inter-particle distance. Nonlinear and ultra fast optical measurements have shown that the transition is the fastest known solid-solid transformation. The VO2 nanoparticles show the same bulk property, transforming in times shorter than 150 fs. This makes them remarkable candidates for ultrafast optical and electronic switching applications.

Universal scheme to generate metal–insulator transition in disordered systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guo, Ai-Min; Xiong, Shi-Jie; Xie, X C; Sun, Qing-feng

2013-01-01

We propose a scheme to generate metal–insulator transition in the random binary layer (RBL) model, which is constructed by randomly assigning two types of layers along the longitudinal direction. Based on a tight-binding Hamiltonian, the localization length is calculated for a variety of RBLs with different cross section geometries by using the transfer-matrix method. Both analytical and numerical results show that a band of extended states could appear in the quasi-one-dimensional RBLs and the systems behave as metals by properly tuning the model parameters, due to the existence of a completely ordered subband, leading to a metal–insulator transition in parameter space. Furthermore, the extended states are irrespective of the diagonal and off-diagonal disorder strengths. Our results can be generalized to two- and three-dimensional disordered systems with arbitrary layer structures, and may be realized in Bose–Einstein condensates. (paper)

Pressure induced phase transition behaviour in -electron based ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

The present review on the high pressure phase transition behaviour of ... For instance, closing of energy gaps lead to metal–insulator transitions [4], shift in energy ... systematic study of the pressure induced structural sequences has become ...

Reliability of the one-crossing approximation in describing the Mott transition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vildosola, V; Roura-Bas, P; Pourovskii, L V; Manuel, L O

2015-01-01

We assess the reliability of the one-crossing approximation (OCA) approach in a quantitative description of the Mott transition in the framework of the dynamical mean field theory (DMFT). The OCA approach has been applied in conjunction with DMFT to a number of heavy-fermion, actinide, transition metal compounds and nanoscale systems. However, several recent studies in the framework of impurity models pointed out serious deficiencies of OCA and raised questions regarding its reliability. Here we consider a single band Hubbard model on the Bethe lattice at finite temperatures and compare the results of OCA to those of a numerically exact quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) method. The temperature-local repulsion U phase diagram for the particle-hole symmetric case obtained by OCA is in good agreement with that of QMC, with the metal–insulator transition captured very well. We find, however, that the insulator to metal transition is shifted to higher values of U and, simultaneously, correlations in the metallic phase are significantly overestimated. This counter-intuitive behaviour is due to simultaneous underestimations of the Kondo scale in the metallic phase and the size of the insulating gap. We trace the underestimation of the insulating gap to that of the second moment of the high-frequency expansion of the impurity spectral density. Calculations of the system away from the particle-hole symmetric case are also presented and discussed. (paper)

Signatures of exciton condensation in a transition metal dichalcogenide

Science.gov (United States)

Kogar, Anshul; Rak, Melinda S.; Vig, Sean; Husain, Ali A.; Flicker, Felix; Joe, Young Il; Venema, Luc; MacDougall, Greg J.; Chiang, Tai C.; Fradkin, Eduardo; van Wezel, Jasper; Abbamonte, Peter

2017-12-01

Bose condensation has shaped our understanding of macroscopic quantum phenomena, having been realized in superconductors, atomic gases, and liquid helium. Excitons are bosons that have been predicted to condense into either a superfluid or an insulating electronic crystal. Using the recently developed technique of momentum-resolved electron energy-loss spectroscopy (M-EELS), we studied electronic collective modes in the transition metal dichalcogenide semimetal 1T-TiSe2. Near the phase-transition temperature (190 kelvin), the energy of the electronic mode fell to zero at nonzero momentum, indicating dynamical slowing of plasma fluctuations and crystallization of the valence electrons into an exciton condensate. Our study provides compelling evidence for exciton condensation in a three-dimensional solid and establishes M-EELS as a versatile technique sensitive to valence band excitations in quantum materials.

Calculation of binary phase diagrams between the actinide elements, rare earth elements, and transition metal elements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Selle, J.E.

1992-01-01

Attempts were made to apply the Kaufman method of calculating binary phase diagrams to the calculation of binary phase diagrams between the rare earths, actinides, and the refractory transition metals. Difficulties were encountered in applying the method to the rare earths and actinides, and modifications were necessary to provide accurate representation of known diagrams. To calculate the interaction parameters for rare earth-rare earth diagrams, it was necessary to use the atomic volumes for each of the phases: liquid, body-centered cubic, hexagonal close-packed, and face-centered cubic. Determination of the atomic volumes of each of these phases for each element is discussed in detail. In some cases, empirical means were necessary. Results are presented on the calculation of rare earth-rare earth, rare earth-actinide, and actinide-actinide diagrams. For rare earth-refractory transition metal diagrams and actinide-refractory transition metal diagrams, empirical means were required to develop values for the enthalpy of vaporization for rare earth elements and values for the constant (C) required when intermediate phases are present. Results of using the values determined for each element are presented

Uncertainty relations and topological-band insulator transitions in 2D gapped Dirac materials

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Romera, E; Calixto, M

2015-01-01

Uncertainty relations are studied for a characterization of topological-band insulator transitions in 2D gapped Dirac materials isostructural with graphene. We show that the relative or Kullback–Leibler entropy in position and momentum spaces, and the standard variance-based uncertainty relation give sharp signatures of topological phase transitions in these systems. (paper)

Anomalous Insulator-Metal Transition in Boron Nitride-Graphene Hybrid Atomic Layers

Science.gov (United States)

2012-08-13

Juan de la Cierva” pro- gram (JCI-2010-08156), Spanish MICINN (FIS2010-21282- C02-01 and PIB2010US-00652), ACI-Promociona (ACI2009- 1036), “ Grupos ...percolation through metallic graphene networks and hopping conduction between edge states on randomly distributed insulating h-BN domains. REPORT...Tallahassee, Florida 32310, USA 3Nano-Bio Spectroscopy Group and ETSF Scientific Development Centre, Departamento de Fı́sica de Materiales, Centro de Fı́sica

Electronic reconstruction at the interface between the Mott insulator LaVO{sub 3} and the band insulator SrTiO{sub 3}

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Stuebinger, Martin; Gabel, Judith; Gagel, Philipp; Sing, Michael; Claessen, Ralph [Universitaet Wuerzburg, Physikalisches Institut and Roentgen Center for Complex Material Systems (RCCM), 97074 Wuerzburg (Germany)

2016-07-01

Akin to the well known oxide heterostructure LaAlO{sub 3}/SrTiO{sub 3} (LAO/STO) the formation of a conducting interface is found between the strongly correlated, polar Mott insulator LaV{sup 3+}O{sub 3} (LVO) and the non-polar band insulator STO. Since LaV{sup 3+}O{sub 3} tends to overoxidize to the thermodynamically more favourable LaV{sup 5+}O{sub 4} phase when exposed to air, a suitable passivation is required. Therefore, we have employed pulsed laser deposition thin film growth of LVO films with a crystalline LAO capping layer. In situ photoemission measurements of samples before and after being exposed to air show that the V oxidation state can indeed be stabilized by the LAO capping layer. By transport measurements, we identify an insulator-to-metal transition at a combined LAO/LVO overlayer thickness of 4 to 5 unit cells. With LVO being a Mott insulator, passivation by the LAO capping opens the opportunity to study a band-filling controlled Mott insulator to metal transition induced by a purely electrostatic mechanism without interfering overoxidation of the LVO film.

A Systematic Transport and Thermodynamic Study of Heavy Transition Metal Oxides with Hexagonal Structure

Science.gov (United States)

Butrouna, Kamal

There is no apparent, dominant interaction in heavy transition metal oxides (TMO), especially in 5d-TMO, where all relevant interactions are of comparable energy scales, and therefore strongly compete. In particular, the spin-orbit interaction (SOI) strongly competes with the electron-lattice and on-site Coulomb interaction (U). Therefore, any tool that allows one to tune the relative strengths of SOI and U is expected to offer an opportunity for the discovery and study of novel materials. BaIrO3 is a magnetic insulator driven by SOI, whereas the isostructural BaRuO3 is a paramagnetic metal. The contrasting ground states have been shown to result from the critical role of SOI in the iridate. This dissertation thoroughly examines a wide array of newly observed novel phenomena induced by adjusting the relative strengths of SOI and U via a systematic chemical substitution of the Ru4+(4d 4) ions for Ir4+(5d5) ions in BaIrO3, i.e., in high quality single crystals of BaIr1--x RuxO3(0.0 ≤ x ≤ 1.0). Our investigation of structural, magnetic, transport and thermal properties reveals that Ru substitution directly rebalances the competing energies so profoundly that it generates a rich phase diagram for BaIr 1--xRuxO 3 featuring two major effects: (1) Light Ru doping (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.15) prompts a simultaneous and precipitous drop in both the magnetic ordering temperature TC and the electrical resistivity, which exhibits metal-insulator transition at around TC. (2) Heavier Ru doping (0.41 ≤ x ≤ 0.82) induces a robust metallic and spin frustration state. For comparison and contrast, we also substituted Rh4+(4d 5) ions for Ir4+(5d5) ions in BaIrO3, i.e. in BaIr1--xRhxO 3(0.0 ≤ x ≤ 0.1), where Rh only reduces the SOI, but without altering the band filling. Hence, this system remains tuned at the Mott instability and is very susceptible to disorder scattering which gives rise to Anderson localization. KEYWORDS: spin-orbit interaction, heavy transition metal oxides

Pressure induced phase transitions in transition metal nitrides: Ab initio study

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Srivastava, Anurag; Chauhan, Mamta [Advanced Material Research Lab, Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management, Gwalior 474010 (India); Singh, R.K. [Department of Physics, ITM University, Gurgaon 122017 (India)

2011-12-15

We have analyzed the stability of transition metal nitrides (TMNs) XN (X = Ti, Zr, Hf, V, Nb, Ta) in their original rocksalt (B1) and hypothetical CsCl (B2) type phases under high compression. The ground state total energy calculation approach of the system has been used through the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) with the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) type parameterization as exchange correlation functional. In the whole series of nitrides taken into consideration, tantalum nitride is found to be the most stable. We have observed that under compression the original B1-type phase of these nitrides transforms to a B2-type phase. We have also discussed the computation of ground state properties, like the lattice constant (a), bulk modulus (B{sub 0}) and first order pressure derivative of the bulk modulus (B'{sub 0}) of the TMNs and their host elements. (Copyright copyright 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

A Difference in Using Atomic Layer Deposition or Physical Vapour Deposition TiN as Electrode Material in Metal-Insulator-Metal and Metal-Insulator-Silicon Capacitors

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Groenland, A.W.; Wolters, Robertus A.M.; Kovalgin, Alexeij Y.; Schmitz, Jurriaan

2011-01-01

In this work, metal-insulator-metal (MIM) and metal-insulator-silicon (MIS) capacitors are studied using titanium nitride (TiN) as the electrode material. The effect of structural defects on the electrical properties on MIS and MIM capacitors is studied for various electrode configurations. In the

Synthesis of one-dimensional metal-containing insulated molecular wire with versatile properties directed toward molecular electronics materials.

Science.gov (United States)

Masai, Hiroshi; Terao, Jun; Seki, Shu; Nakashima, Shigeto; Kiguchi, Manabu; Okoshi, Kento; Fujihara, Tetsuaki; Tsuji, Yasushi

2014-02-05

We report, herein, the design, synthesis, and properties of new materials directed toward molecular electronics. A transition metal-containing insulated molecular wire was synthesized through the coordination polymerization of a Ru(II) porphyrin with an insulated bridging ligand of well-defined structure. The wire displayed not only high linearity and rigidity, but also high intramolecular charge mobility. Owing to the unique properties of the coordination bond, the interconversion between the monomer and polymer states was realized under a carbon monoxide atmosphere or UV irradiation. The results demonstrated a high potential of the metal-containing insulated molecular wire for applications in molecular electronics.

Metal-insulator transition in Pt-C nanowires grown by focused-ion-beam-induced deposition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fernandez-Pacheco, A.; Ibarra, M. R.; De Teresa, J. M.; Cordoba, R.

2009-01-01

We present a study of the transport properties of Pt-C nanowires created by focused-ion-beam (FIB)-induced deposition. By means of the measurement of the resistance while the deposit is being performed, we observe a progressive decrease in the nanowire resistivity with thickness, changing from 10 8 μΩ cm for thickness ∼20 nm to a lowest saturated value of 700 μΩ cm for thickness >150 nm. Spectroscopy analysis indicates that this dependence on thickness is caused by a gradient in the metal-carbon ratio as the deposit is grown. We have fabricated nanowires in different ranges of resistivity and studied their conduction mechanism as a function of temperature. A metal-insulator transition as a function of the nanowire thickness is observed. The results will be discussed in terms of the Mott-Anderson theory for noncrystalline materials. An exponential decrease in the conductance with the electric field is found for the most resistive samples, a phenomenon understood by the theory of hopping in lightly doped semiconductors under strong electric fields. This work explains the important discrepancies found in the literature for Pt-C nanostructures grown by FIB and opens the possibility to tune the transport properties of this material by an appropriate selection of the growth parameters.

UV light induced insulator-metal transition in ultra-thin ZnO/TiO{sub x} stacked layer grown by atomic layer deposition

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Saha, D., E-mail: sahaphys@gmail.com, E-mail: pmisra@rrcat.gov.in; Misra, P., E-mail: sahaphys@gmail.com, E-mail: pmisra@rrcat.gov.in; Joshi, M. P.; Kukreja, L. M. [Laser Materials Processing Division, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore 452 013 (India)

2016-08-28

In the present study, atomic layer deposition has been used to grow a series of Ti incorporated ZnO thin films by vertically stacking different numbers (n = 1–7) of ZnO/TiO{sub x} layers on (0001) sapphire substrates. The effects of defect states mediated chemisorption of O{sub 2} and/OH groups on the electrical properties of these films have been investigated by illuminating the samples under UV light inside a high vacuum optical cryostat. The ultra-thin film having one stacked layer (n = 1) did not show any change in its electrical resistance upon UV light exposure. On the contrary, marginal drop in the electrical resistivity was measured for the samples with n ≥ 3. Most surprisingly, the sample with n = 2 (thickness ∼ 12 nm) showed an insulator to metal transition upon UV light exposure. The temperature dependent electrical resistivity measurement on the as grown film (n = 2) showed insulating behaviour, i.e., diverging resistivity on extrapolation to T→ 0 K. However, upon UV light exposure, it transformed to a metallic state, i.e., finite resistivity at T → 0 K. Such an insulator-metal transition plausibly arises due to the de-trapping of conduction electrons from the surface defect sites which resulted in an upward shift of the Fermi level above the mobility edge. The low-temperature electron transport properties on the insulating film (n = 2) were investigated by a combined study of zero field electrical resistivity ρ(T) and magnetoresistance (MR) measurements. The observed negative MR was found to be in good agreement with the magnetic field induced suppression of quantum interference between forward-going paths of tunnelling electrons. Both ρ(T) and MR measurements provided strong evidence for the Efros-Shklovskii type variable range hopping conduction in the low-temperature (≤40 K) regime. Such studies on electron transport in ultra-thin n-type doped ZnO films are crucial to achieve optimum functionality

The metal-insulator transition of RNiO3 perovskites. What can we learn from neutron diffraction?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Medarde, M.L.

1996-01-01

RNiO 3 perovskites (R = rare earth) provide a remarkable opportunity to study the relationship between structural and physical properties since by moving along the 4f rare earth series, the evolution of several transport and magnetic properties can be nicely correlated to the steric effects associated with the lanthanide contraction. The most appealing example is probably the metal-insulator transition discovered for the compounds with R≠La, whose critical temperature T M-I increases with decreasing size of the rare earth ion. In this lecture, a summary of the most relevant neutron diffraction results on this system is presented. Moreover, the nickelates are used as an example to illustrate the performance of the diffractometers HRPT and DMCG to be installed at the SINQ. (author) 12 figs., 2 tabs., 17 refs

Binary and ternary carbides and nitrides of the transition metals and their phase relations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Holleck, H.

1981-01-01

The occurrance and the structure of the binary and ternary transition metal carbides and nitrides are described. Phase diagrams are assessed for most of the binary and ternary systems. Many ternary phase diagrams are published in this report for the first time. (orig.) [de

A Brillouin scattering study of La0.77Ca0.23MnO3 across the metal-insulator transition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seikh, Md Motin; Narayana, Chandrabhas; Sudheendra, L; Sood, A K; Rao, C N R

2004-01-01

Temperature-dependent Brillouin scattering studies have been carried out on La 0.77 Ca 0.23 MnO 3 across the paramagnetic insulator-ferromagnetic metal (I-M) transition (T C ∼ 230 K). The spectra show modes corresponding to a surface Rayleigh wave (SRW) and a high velocity pseudo-surface wave (HVPSAW) along with bulk acoustic waves (B1 and B2). The Brillouin shifts associated with the SRW and HVPSAW increase, whereas the B1 and B2 frequencies decrease, below T C . The temperature dependence of the SRW and HVPSAW modes is related to the increase in the elastic constant C 11 across the I-M transition. The decrease in frequency across the I-M transition of the bulk modes is understood to be due to enhanced self-energy corrections as a result of increased magnon-phonon interaction across the I-M transition. Correspondingly, these modes show a large increase in the full width at half maximum (FWHM) as the temperature decreases. We also observe a central peak whose width is maximum at T C

Mechanisms of spin-flipping and metal-insulator transition in nano-Fe3O4

Science.gov (United States)

Dito Fauzi, Angga; Aziz Majidi, Muhammad; Rusydi, Andrivo

2017-04-01

Fe3O4 is a half-metallic ferrimagnet with {{T}\\text{C}}˜ 860 K exhibiting metal-insulator transition (MIT) at  ˜120 K. In bulk form, the saturation magnetization is 0.6 Tesla (˜471 emu cm-3). A recent experimental study has shown that the saturation magnetization of nano-Fe3O4 thin films can achieve up to  ˜760 emu cm-3, attributed to spin-flipping of Fe ions at tetrahedral sites assisted by oxygen vacancies (V O). Such a system has shown to have higher MIT temperature (˜150 K). The spin-flipping is a new phenomenon in Fe3O4, while the MIT is a long-standing one. Here, we propose a model and calculations to investigate the mechanisms of both phenomena. Our results show that, for the system without V O, the ferrimagnetic configuration is energetically favorable. Remakably, upon inclusion of V O, the ground-state configuration switches into ferromagnetic. As for the MIT, by proposing temperature dependences of some hopping integrals in the model, we demonstrate that the system without and with V O undergo the MIT in slightly different ways, leading to higher MIT temperature for the system with V O, in agreement with the experimental data. Our results also show that the MIT in both systems occur concomitantly with the redistribution of electrons among the three Fe ions in each Fe3O4 formula unit. As such temperature dependences of hopping integrals may arise due to dynamic Jahn-Teller effects, our phenomenological theory may provide a way to reconcile existing theories relating the MIT to the structural transition and the charge ordering.

Phase engineering of monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenide through coupled electron doping and lattice deformation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ouyang, Bin; Lan, Guoqiang; Song, Jun; Guo, Yinsheng; Mi, Zetian

2015-01-01

First-principles calculations were performed to investigate the phase stability and transition within four monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenide (TMD) systems, i.e., MX 2 (M = Mo or W and X = S or Se) under coupled electron doping and lattice deformation. With the lattice distortion and electron doping density treated as state variables, the energy surfaces of different phases were computed, and the diagrams of energetically preferred phases were constructed. These diagrams assess the competition between different phases and predict conditions of phase transitions for the TMDs considered. The interplay between lattice deformation and electron doping was identified as originating from the deformation induced band shifting and band bending. Based on our findings, a potential design strategy combining an efficient electrolytic gating and a lattice straining to achieve controllable phase engineering in TMD monolayers was demonstrated

Half-Metallic Ferromagnetism and Stability of Transition Metal Pnictides and Chalcogenides

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Bang-Gui

It is highly desirable to explore robust half-metallic ferromagnetic materials compatible with important semiconductors for spintronic applications. A state-of-the-art full potential augmented plane wave method within the densityfunctional theory is reliable enough for this purpose. In this chapter we review theoretical research on half-metallic ferromagnetism and structural stability of transition metal pnictides and chalcogenides. We show that some zincblende transition metal pnictides are half-metallic and the half-metallic gap can be fairly wide, which is consistent with experiment. Systematic calculations reveal that zincblende phases of CrTe, CrSe, and VTe are excellent half-metallic ferromagnets. These three materials have wide half-metallic gaps, are low in total energy with respect to the corresponding ground-state phases, and, importantly, are structurally stable. Halfmetallic ferromagnetism is also found in wurtzite transition metal pnictides and chalcogenides and in transition-metal doped semiconductors as well as deformed structures. Some of these half-metallic materials could be grown epitaxially in the form of ultrathin .lms or layers suitable for real spintronic applications.

Probing charge transfer during metal-insulator transitions in graphene-LaAlO3/SrTiO3 systems

Science.gov (United States)

Aliaj, I.; Sambri, A.; Miseikis, V.; Stornaiuolo, D.; di Gennaro, E.; Coletti, C.; Pellegrini, V.; Miletto Granozio, F.; Roddaro, S.

2018-06-01

Two-dimensional electron systems (2DESs) at the interface between LaAlO3 (LAO) and SrTiO3 (STO) perovskite oxides display a wide class of tunable phenomena ranging from superconductivity to metal-insulator transitions. Most of these effects are strongly sensitive to surface physics and often involve charge transfer mechanisms, which are, however, hard to detect. In this work, we realize hybrid field-effect devices where graphene is used to modulate the transport properties of the LAO/STO 2DES. Different from a conventional gate, graphene is semimetallic and allows us to probe charge transfer with the oxide structure underneath the field-effect electrode. In LAO/STO samples with a low initial carrier density, graphene-covered regions turn insulating when the temperature is lowered to 3 K, but conduction can be restored in the oxide structure by increasing the temperature or by field effect. The evolution of graphene's electron density is found to be inconsistent with a depletion of LAO/STO, but it rather points to a localization of interfacial carriers in the oxide structure.

Phase transitions in nuclear matter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Glendenning, N.K.

1984-11-01

The rather general circumstances under which a phase transition in hadronic matter at finite temperature to an abnormal phase in which baryon effective masses become small and in which copious baryon-antibaryon pairs appear is emphasized. A preview is also given of a soliton model of dense matter, in which at a density of about seven times nuclear density, matter ceases to be a color insulator and becomes increasingly color conducting. 22 references

Non-volatile resistive switching in the Mott insulator (V1-xCrx)2O3

Science.gov (United States)

Querré, M.; Tranchant, J.; Corraze, B.; Cordier, S.; Bouquet, V.; Députier, S.; Guilloux-Viry, M.; Besland, M.-P.; Janod, E.; Cario, L.

2018-05-01

The discovery of non-volatile resistive switching in Mott insulators related to an electric-field-induced insulator to metal transition (IMT) has paved the way for their use in a new type of non-volatile memories, the Mott memories. While most of the previous studies were dedicated to uncover the resistive switching mechanism and explore the memory potential of chalcogenide Mott insulators, we present here a comprehensive study of resistive switching in the canonical oxide Mott insulator (V1-xCrx)2O3. Our work demonstrates that this compound undergoes a non-volatile resistive switching under electric field. This resistive switching is induced by a Mott transition at the local scale which creates metallic domains closely related to existing phases of the temperature-pressure phase diagram of (V1-xCrx)2O3. Our work demonstrates also reversible resistive switching in (V1-xCrx)2O3 crystals and thin film devices. Preliminary performances obtained on 880 nm thick layers with 500 nm electrodes show the strong potential of Mott memories based on the Mott insulator (V1-xCrx)2O3.

Theoretical formulation of optical conductivity of La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 exhibiting paramagnetic insulator - ferromagnetic metal transition

Science.gov (United States)

Satiawati, L.; Majidi, M. A.

2017-07-01

A theory of high-energy optical conductivity of La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 has been proposed previously. The proposed theory works to explain the temperature-dependence of the optical conductivity for the photon energy region above ˜0.5 eV for up to ˜22 eV, but fails to capture the correct physics close to the dc limit in which metal-insulator transition occurs. The missing physics at the low energy has been acknowledged as mainly due to not incorporating phonon degree of freedom and electron-phonon interactions. In this study, we aim to complete the above theory by proposing a more complete Hamiltonian incorporating additional terms such as crystal field, two modes of Jahn-Teller vibrations, and coupling between electrons and the two Jahn-Teller vibrational modes. We solve the model by means of dynamical mean-field theory. At this stage, we aim to derive the analytical formulae involved in the calculation, and formulate the algorithmic implementation for the self-consistent calculation process. Our final goal is to compute the density of states and the optical conductivity for the complete photon energy range from 0 to 22 eV at various temperatures, and compare them with the experimental data. We expect that the improved model preserves the correct temperature-dependent physics at high photon energies, as already captured by the previous model, while it would also reveal ferromagnetic metal - paramagnetic insulator transition at the dc limit.

Strongly Coupled Magnetic and Electronic Transitions in Multivalent Strontium Cobaltites.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, J H; Choi, Woo Seok; Jeen, H; Lee, H-J; Seo, J H; Nam, J; Yeom, M S; Lee, H N

2017-11-22

The topotactic phase transition in SrCoO x (x = 2.5-3.0) makes it possible to reversibly transit between the two distinct phases, i.e. the brownmillerite SrCoO 2.5 that is a room-temperature antiferromagnetic insulator (AFM-I) and the perovskite SrCoO 3 that is a ferromagnetic metal (FM-M), owing to their multiple valence states. For the intermediate x values, the two distinct phases are expected to strongly compete with each other. With oxidation of SrCoO 2.5 , however, it has been conjectured that the magnetic transition is decoupled to the electronic phase transition, i.e., the AFM-to-FM transition occurs before the insulator-to-metal transition (IMT), which is still controversial. Here, we bridge the gap between the two-phase transitions by density-functional theory calculations combined with optical spectroscopy. We confirm that the IMT actually occurs concomitantly with the FM transition near the oxygen content x = 2.75. Strong charge-spin coupling drives the concurrent IMT and AFM-to-FM transition, which fosters the near room-T magnetic transition characteristic. Ultimately, our study demonstrates that SrCoO x is an intriguingly rare candidate for inducing coupled magnetic and electronic transition via fast and reversible redox reactions.

Direct observation of the lattice precursor of the metal-to-insulator transition in V2O3 thin films by surface acoustic waves

Science.gov (United States)

Kündel, J.; Pontiller, P.; Müller, C.; Obermeier, G.; Liu, Z.; Nateprov, A. A.; Hörner, A.; Wixforth, A.; Horn, S.; Tidecks, R.

2013-03-01

A surface acoustic wave (SAW) delay line is used to study the metal-to-insulator (MI) transition of V2O3 thin films deposited on a piezoelectric LiNbO3 substrate. Effects contributing to the sound velocity shift of the SAW which are caused by elastic properties of the lattice of the V2O3 films when changing the temperature are separated from those originating from the electrical conductivity. For this purpose the electric field accompanying the elastic wave of the SAW has been shielded by growing the V2O3 film on a thin metallic Cr interlayer (coated with Cr2O3), covering the piezoelectric substrate. Thus, the recently discovered lattice precursor of the MI transition can be directly observed in the experiments, and its fine structure can be investigated.

Ultrashort hybrid metal-insulator plasmonic directional coupler.

Science.gov (United States)

Noghani, Mahmoud Talafi; Samiei, Mohammad Hashem Vadjed

2013-11-01

An ultrashort plasmonic directional coupler based on the hybrid metal-insulator slab waveguide is proposed and analyzed at the telecommunication wavelength of 1550 nm. It is first analyzed using the supermode theory based on mode analysis via the transfer matrix method in the interaction region. Then the 2D model of the coupler, including transition arms, is analyzed using a commercial finite-element method simulator. The hybrid slab waveguide is composed of a metallic layer of silver and two dielectric layers of silica (SiO2) and silicon (Si). The coupler is optimized to have a minimum coupling length and to transfer maximum power considering the layer thicknesses as optimization variables. The resulting coupling length in the submicrometer region along with a noticeable power transfer efficiency are advantages of the proposed coupler compared to previously reported plasmonic couplers.

Influence of the disorder in doped germanium changed by compensation on the critical indices of the metal-insulator transition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rentzsch, R.; Reich, Ch.; Ionov, A.N.; Ginodman, V.; Slimak, I.; Fozooni, P.; Lea, M.J.

1999-01-01

We present a critical review of the present status of the critical exponent puzzle of the metal-insulator transition of doped semiconductors with the emphasis on the role of meso- and macroscopy inhomogeneity caused by the disorder of acceptors and donors in the crystals. By using the isotopic and engineering and the neutron transmutation doping of germanium we found for low compensations (at K = 1.4 and 12%) that the critical exponents of the localization length and the dielectric constant are nearly ν = 1/2 and ξ = 1, which double for medium compensations (at K = 39 and 54%) to ν 1 and ξ = 2, respectively

Simulated electron affinity tuning in metal-insulator-metal (MIM) diodes

Science.gov (United States)

Mistry, Kissan; Yavuz, Mustafa; Musselman, Kevin P.

2017-05-01

Metal-insulator-metal diodes for rectification applications must exhibit high asymmetry, nonlinearity, and responsivity. Traditional methods of improving these figures of merit have consisted of increasing insulator thickness, adding multiple insulator layers, and utilizing a variety of metal contact combinations. However, these methods have come with the price of increasing the diode resistance and ultimately limiting the operating frequency to well below the terahertz regime. In this work, an Airy Function Transfer Matrix simulation method was used to observe the effect of tuning the electron affinity of the insulator as a technique to decrease the diode resistance. It was shown that a small increase in electron affinity can result in a resistance decrease in upwards of five orders of magnitude, corresponding to an increase in operating frequency on the same order. Electron affinity tuning has a minimal effect on the diode figures of merit, where asymmetry improves or remains unaffected and slight decreases in nonlinearity and responsivity are likely to be greatly outweighed by the improved operating frequency of the diode.

Optical Response of Cu1-xZnxIr2S4 Due to Metal--Insulator Transition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, L.; Matsunami, M.; Nanba, T.; Cao, G.; Suzuki, H.; Isobe, M.; Matsumoto, T.

2003-01-01

The mother material CuIr 2 S 4 of the thiospinel system Cu 1-x Zn x Ir 2 S 4 undergoes a temperature-induced metal--insulator (Mi) transition. We report the temperature dependence of the optical reflection spectra of Cu 1-x Zn x Ir 2 S 4 (x ≤ 0.5) at the temperatures of 8-300 K in the energy regions of 0.005--30 eV in order to study the change in the electronic structure due to the Zn substitution for Cu. Zn substitution induced mainly the splitting of the hybridization band between the Ir-5d(t 2g ) and S-3 p states crossing the E F . Obtained optical conductivity (σ ) spectrum is discussed in relation to the change in the electronic structure close to the E F . (author)

Quantum Monte Carlo study of the superconductor-insulator transition in the dual vortex representation

Science.gov (United States)

Khan, Hasan; Gazit, Snir; Randeria, Mohit; Trivedi, Nandini

The superconductor-insulator transition (SIT) in two dimensions is a paradigm for quantum criticality that has been observed experimentally in Josephson junction arrays, superconducting thin films, and cold atoms trapped in an optical lattice. The conventional picture of the transition is in terms of the condensation of bosonic degrees of freedom (Cooper pairs in superconductors). Interestingly, the transition has a dual description, where the insulating phase is a Bose condensate of vortices. We study the SIT numerically by means of a large-scale quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulation in the vortex representation. This provides direct access to both the boson and vortex degrees of freedom and allows us to numerically test the duality and quantify deviations from self-duality. Our main focus is on critical properties such as the vortex and the boson phase stiffness. We compare our results to previous studies in the bosonic representation. We acknowledge support from Grant DOE-BES DE-FG02-07ER46423 (HK, NT).

Effets dimensionnels dans un système désordonné au voisinage des transitions métal-isolant et supraconducteur-isolant

OpenAIRE

Marrache-Kikuchi , Claire

2006-01-01

Low temperature transport in disordered conducting materials imply quantum interference, Coulomb repulsion, and superconducting fluctuations. Since 2D is the lower critical dimension for the existence of metallic and superconducting states, we have studied two quantum phase transitions - the Superconductor-to-Insulator Transition (SIT) and the Metal-to-Insulator Transition (MIT) - when the thickness of a disordered system - here a-NbSi - is lowered. The underlying problem is the transition be...

Sharp superconductor-insulator transition in short wires

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Meidan, Dganit; Oreg, Yuval; Refael, Gil; Smith, Robert A.

2008-01-01

Recent experiments on short MoGe nanowires show a sharp superconductor-insulator transition tuned by the normal state resistance of the wire, with a critical resistance of R c ∼ R Q = h/(4e 2 ). These results are at odds with a broad range of theoretical work on Josephson-like systems that predicts a smooth transition, tuned by the value of the resistance that shunts the junction. We develop a self-consistent renormalization group treatment of interacting phase-slips and their dual counterparts, correlated cooper pair tunneling, beyond the dilute approximation. This analysis leads to a very sharp transition with a critical resistance of R Q . The addition of the quasi-particles' resistance at finite temperature leads to a quantitative agreement with the experimental results. This self-consistent renormalization group method should also be applicable to other physical systems that can be mapped onto similar sine-Gordon models, in the previously inaccessible intermediate-coupling regime

Electron lone pair distortion facilitated metal-insulator transition in β-Pb{sub 0.33}V{sub 2}O{sub 5} nanowires

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wangoh, L.; Quackenbush, N. F. [Department of Physics, Applied Physics and Astronomy, Binghamton University, Binghamton, New York 13902 (United States); Marley, P. M.; Banerjee, S. [Department of Chemistry, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, New York 14260 (United States); Sallis, S. [Materials Science and Engineering, Binghamton University, Binghamton, New York 13902 (United States); Fischer, D. A.; Woicik, J. C. [Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899 (United States); Piper, L. F. J., E-mail: lpiper@binghamton.edu [Department of Physics, Applied Physics and Astronomy, Binghamton University, Binghamton, New York 13902 (United States); Materials Science and Engineering, Binghamton University, Binghamton, New York 13902 (United States)

2014-05-05

The electronic structure of β-Pb{sub 0.33}V{sub 2}O{sub 5} nanowires has been studied with x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy techniques. The recent synthesis of defect-free β-Pb{sub 0.33}V{sub 2}O{sub 5} nanowires resulted in the discovery of an abrupt voltage-induced metal insulator transition. First principle calculations predicted an additional V-O-Pb hybridized “in-gap” state unique to this vanadium bronze playing a significant role in facilitating the transition. We confirm the existence, energetic position, and orbital character of the “in-gap” state. Moreover, we reveal that this state is a hybridized Pb 6s–O 2p antibonding lone pair state resulting from the asymmetric coordination of the Pb{sup 2+} ions.

Infrared plasmonic nano-lasers based on Metal Insulator Metal waveguides

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hill, M.T.

2010-01-01

We will present our latest results on metal-insulator-metal waveguide devices, in particular reducing the dimensions of devices and distributed feedback lasers. Also we will examine potential useful applications for metal nano-lasers.

High-Pressure Thermodynamic Properties of f-electron Metals, Transition Metal Oxides, and Half-Metallic Magnets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Richard T. Scalettar; Warren E. Pickett

2005-01-01

This project involves research into the thermodynamic properties of f-electron metals, transition metal oxides, and half-metallic magnets at high pressure. These materials are ones in which the changing importance of electron-electron interactions as the distance between atoms is varied can tune the system through phase transitions from localized to delocalized electrons, from screened to unscreened magnetic moments, and from normal metal to one in which only a single spin specie can conduct. Three main thrusts are being pursued: (1) Mott transitions in transition metal oxides, (2) magnetism in half-metallic compounds, and (3) large volume-collapse transitions in f-band metals

High-Pressure Thermodynamic Properties of f-electron Metals, Transition Metal Oxides, and Half-Metallic Magnets

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Scalettar, Richard T.; Pickett, Warren E.

2004-07-01

This project involves research into the thermodynamic properties of f-electron metals, transition metal oxides, and half-metallic magnets at high pressure. These materials are ones in which the changing importance of electron-electron interactions as the distance between atoms is varied can tune the system through phase transitions from localized to delocalized electrons, from screened to unscreened magnetic moments, and from normal metal to one in which only a single spin specie can conduct. Three main thrusts are being pursued: (1) Mott transitions in transition metal oxides, (2) magnetism in half-metallic compounds, and (3) large volume-collapse transitions in f-band metals.

High-Pressure Thermodynamic Properties of f-electron Metals, Transition Metal Oxides, and Half-Metallic Magnets

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Richard T. Scalettar; Warren E. Pickett

2005-08-02

This project involves research into the thermodynamic properties of f-electron metals, transition metal oxides, and half-metallic magnets at high pressure. These materials are ones in which the changing importance of electron-electron interactions as the distance between atoms is varied can tune the system through phase transitions from localized to delocalized electrons, from screened to unscreened magnetic moments, and from normal metal to one in which only a single spin specie can conduct. Three main thrusts are being pursued: (i) Mott transitions in transition metal oxides, (ii) magnetism in half-metallic compounds, and (iii) large volume-collapse transitions in f-band metals.

Predicted stability, structures, and magnetism of 3d transition metal nitrides: the M4N phases

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Fang, C.M.; Koster, R.S.; Li, W.F.; van Huis, M.A.

2014-01-01

The 3d transition metal nitrides M4N (Sc4N, Ti4N, V4N, Cr4N, Mn4N, Fe4N, Co4N, Ni4N, and Cu4N) have unique phase relationships, crystal structures, and electronic and magnetic properties. Here we present a systematic density functional theory (DFT) study on these transition metal nitrides, assessing

Charging damage in floating metal-insulator-metal capacitors

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ackaert, Jan; Wang, Zhichun; De Backer, E.; Coppens, P.

2002-01-01

In this paper, charging induced damage (CID) to metal-insulator-metal capacitors (MIMC) is reported. The damage is caused by the build up of a voltage potential difference between the two plates of the capacitor. A simple logarithmic relation is discovered between the damage by this voltage

The dynamics of the laser-induced metal-semiconductor phase transition of samarium sulfide (SmS)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kaempfer, Tino

2009-01-01

The present thesis is dedicated to the experimental study of the metal-semiconductor phase transition of samarium sulfide (SmS): Temperature- and time-resolved experiments on the characterization of the phase transition of mixed-valence SmS samples (M-SmS) are presented. The measurement of the dynamics of the laser-induced phase transition pursues via time-resolved ultrashort-time microscopy and by X-ray diffraction with sub-picosecond time resolution. The electronic and structural processes, which follow an excitation of M-SmS with infrared femtosecond laser pulses, are physically interpreted on the base of the results obtained in this thesis and model imaginations. [de

The metal-insulator transition of RNiO{sub 3} perovskites. What can we learn from neutron diffraction?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Medarde, M L [Paul Scherrer Inst. (PSI), Villigen (Switzerland)

1996-11-01

RNiO{sub 3} perovskites (R = rare earth) provide a remarkable opportunity to study the relationship between structural and physical properties since by moving along the 4f rare earth series, the evolution of several transport and magnetic properties can be nicely correlated to the steric effects associated with the lanthanide contraction. The most appealing example is probably the metal-insulator transition discovered for the compounds with R{ne}La, whose critical temperature T{sub M-I} increases with decreasing size of the rare earth ion. In this lecture, a summary of the most relevant neutron diffraction results on this system is presented. Moreover, the nickelates are used as an example to illustrate the performance of the diffractometers HRPT and DMCG to be installed at the SINQ. (author) 12 figs., 2 tabs., 17 refs.

Plasma damage in floating metal-insulator-metal capacitors

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ackaert, Jan; Wang, Zhichun; De Backer, E.; Coppens, P.

2002-01-01

In this paper, charging induced damage (CID) to metal-insulator-metal capacitors (MIMCs), is reported. CID does not necessarily lead to direct yield loss, but may also induce latent damage leading to reliability losses. The damage is caused by the build up of a voltage potential difference between

Plasma Damage in Floating Metal-Insulator-Metal Capacitors

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ackaert, Jan; Wang, Zhichun; Backer, E.; Coppens, P.

2001-01-01

In this paper, charging induced damage (CID) to metal-insulator-metal capacitors (MIMCs), is reported. CID does not necessarily lead to direct yield loss, but may also induce latent damage leading to reliability losses. The damage is caused by the build up of a voltage potential difference between

Quantum critical behaviour of the plateau-insulator transition in the quantum Hall regime

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Visser, A de; Ponomarenko, L A; Galistu, G; Lang, D T N de; Pruisken, A M M; Zeitler, U; Maude, D

2006-01-01

High-field magnetotransport experiments provide an excellent tool to investigate the plateau-insulator phase transition in the integral quantum Hall effect. Here we review recent low-temperature high-field magnetotransport studies carried out on several InGaAs/InP heterostructures and an InGaAs/GaAs quantum well. We find that the longitudinal resistivity ρ xx near the critical filling factor ν c ∼ 0.5 follows the universal scaling law ρ xx (ν, T) ∝ exp(-Δν/(T/T 0 ) κ ), where Δν = ν-ν c . The critical exponent κ equals 0.56 ± 0.02, which indicates that the plateau-insulator transition falls in a non-Fermi liquid universality class

Anomalous second ferromagnetic phase transition in Co{sub 0.08}Bi{sub 1.92}Se{sub 3} topological insulator

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhang, Min, E-mail: zmzmi1987@163.com; Liu, Ligang; Yang, Hui

2016-09-05

We report the observation of ferromagnetism in topological insulator Co{sub 0.08}Bi{sub 1.92}Se{sub 3} single crystal. The structural, magnetic, and microstructure properties of Co{sub 0.08}Bi{sub 1.92}Se{sub 3} are investigated. The existence of complicated ferromagnetic ordering, indicates the anomalous second ferromagnetic phase transition below 30 K. Well-defined ferromagnetic hysteresis in the magnetization was found in the sample. The origin of bulk ferromagnetism in Co{sub 0.08}Bi{sub 1.92}Se{sub 3} is concerned with three aspects: Co cluster, RKKY interactions, and the spin texture of Co impurities. - Highlights: • The bulk ferromagnetism have been found in the C{sub o0.08}Bi{sub 1.92}Se{sub 3} single crystal. • The anomalous second ferromagnetic phase transition is found below 30 K. • The origin of bulk ferromagnetism in Co{sub 0.08}Bi{sub 1.92}Se{sub 3} is concerned with three aspects.

Light scattering at the semiconductor-metal phase transition in vanadium dioxide

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Valiev, K.A.; Mokerov, V.G.; Sarajkin, V.V.; Petrova, A.G.

1977-01-01

The temperature dependence of optical properties has been investigated of vanadium dioxide thin monocrystals at the phase transition (PT) semiconductor-metal. It is established, that the anomaly arising herein is caused by the light scattering effect. As a result of the study of the scattered light intensity angle distribution and direct investigation of the samples the picture of optical heterogeneities responsible for the given scattering is determined into the polarization optical microscope. It is shown that these heterogeneities are due to the VO 2 two phases co-existence in the PT range and the light scattering effect is caused by the substantial difference of their optical constants, i.e. represents the so-called ''transition'' opalescence. At the PT investigation within the limits of the separate embrios of the new phase it has been found, that the PT temperature in various embrios is different. This is used to explain the PT temperature ''washing out'' in the investigated samples. It is supposed, that formation of the new phase is caused by the presence of elastic stress fields, arising close to the defects

Highly repeatable nanoscale phase coexistence in vanadium dioxide films

Science.gov (United States)

Huffman, T. J.; Lahneman, D. J.; Wang, S. L.; Slusar, T.; Kim, Bong-Jun; Kim, Hyun-Tak; Qazilbash, M. M.

2018-02-01

It is generally believed that in first-order phase transitions in materials with imperfections, the formation of phase domains must be affected to some extent by stochastic (probabilistic) processes. The stochasticity would lead to unreliable performance in nanoscale devices that have the potential to exploit the transformation of physical properties in a phase transition. Here we show that stochasticity at nanometer length scales is completely suppressed in the thermally driven metal-insulator transition (MIT) in sputtered vanadium dioxide (V O2 ) films. The nucleation and growth of domain patterns of metallic and insulating phases occur in a strikingly reproducible way. The completely deterministic nature of domain formation and growth in films with imperfections is a fundamental and unexpected finding about the kinetics of this material. Moreover, it opens the door for realizing reliable nanoscale devices based on the MIT in V O2 and similar phase-change materials.

Metallic insulation transport and strainer clogging tests

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hyvaerinen, J.; Hongisto, O.

1994-06-01

Experiments to probe the transport and clogging properties of metallic (metal reflective) insulation have been carried out in order to provide data for evaluation of their influence on the emergency core cooling and containment spray systems of the Finnish boiling water reactors in the event of a design basis accident. The specific metallic insulation tested was DARMET, provided by Darchem Engineering Ltd. The inner foils of Darmet are dimped. Available literature on the metallic insulation performance under design basis accident conditions has been reviewed. On the basis of the review a parametric approach has been chosen for the transport and clogging experiments. This approach involves testing a wide size range of various shapes of foil pieces. Five sets of experiments have been carried out. The first three sets investigate transport properties of the foil pieces, starting from sedimentation in stagnant waste pool and proceeding to transport in horizontal and vertically circulating flows. The clogging experiments have been addressed the differential pressures obtained due to accumulation of both pure and metallic and a mixture of metallic and fibrous (mineral wool) depris. (4 refs., 24 figs., 2 tabs.)

Criticality and novel quantum liquid phases in Ginzburg-Landau theories with compact and non-compact gauge fields

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Smiseth, Jo

2005-07-01

The critical properties of three-dimensional U(1)-symmetric lattice gauge theories have been studied. The models apply to various physical systems such as insulating phases of strongly correlated electron systems as well as superconducting and superfluid states of liquid metallic hydrogen under extreme pressures. The thesis contains an introductory part and a collection of research papers of which seven are published works and one is submitted for publication. The outline of this thesis is as follows. In Chapter 2 the theory of phase transitions is discussed with emphasis on continuous phase transitions, critical phenomena and phase transitions in gauge theories. In the next chapter the phases of the abelian Higgs model are presented, and the critical phenomena are discussed. Furthermore, the multicomponent Ginzburg-Landau theory and the applications to liquid metallic hydrogen are presented. Chapter 4 contains an overview of the Monte Carlo integration scheme, including the Metropolis algorithm, error estimates, and re weighting techniques. This chapter is followed by the papers I-VIII. Paper I: Criticality in the (2+1)-Dimensional Compact Higgs Model and Fractionalized Insulators. Paper II: Phase structure of (2+1)-dimensional compact lattice gauge theories and the transition from Mott insulator to fractionalized insulator. Paper III: Compact U(1) gauge theories in 2+1 dimensions and the physics of low dimensional insulating materials. Paper IV: Phase structure of Abelian Chern-Simons gauge theories. Paper V: Critical Properties of the N-Color London Model. Paper VI: Field- and temperature induced topological phase transitions in the three-dimensional N-component London superconductor. Paper VII: Vortex Sublattice Melting in a Two-Component Superconductor. Paper VIII: Observation of a metallic superfluid in a numerical experiment (ml)

Phase transition in lithium ammonium sulphate doped with cesium metal ions

Science.gov (United States)

Gaafar, M.; Kassem, M. E.; Kandil, S. H.

2000-07-01

Effects of doped cesium (C s+) metal ions (with different molar ratios n) on the phase transition of lithium ammonium sulphate LiNH 4SO 4 system have been studied by measuring the specific heat Cp( T) of the doped systems in the temperature range from 400 to 480 K. The study shows a peculiar phase transition of the pure system ( n=0) characterized by double distinct peaks, changed to a single sharp and narrow one as a result of the doping process. The measurements exhibit different effects of enhanced molar ratios of dopants on the phase transition behaviour of this system. At low dopant content ( n≤3%), the excess specific heat (Δ Cp) max at the transition temperature T1 decreases till a minimum value at n=0.8%, then it increases gradually. In this case, Δ Cp( T) behaviour is varied quantitatively and not modified. Enhanced dopant content ( n>3%) has a pronounced effect on the critical behaviour, which is significantly changed and considerably modified relative to the pure system. In addition, broadening of the critical temperature region, and decrease of (Δ Cp) max associated with changes of the Landau expansion coefficients are obtained and discussed. The study deals with the contribution of the thermally excited dipoles to the specific heat in the ferroelectric region and shows that their energy depends on doping.

Disorder-induced transitions in resonantly driven Floquet topological insulators

Science.gov (United States)

Titum, Paraj; Lindner, Netanel H.; Refael, Gil

2017-08-01

We investigate the effects of disorder in Floquet topological insulators (FTIs) occurring in semiconductor quantum wells. Such FTIs are induced by resonantly driving a transition between the valence and conduction bands. We show that when disorder is added, the topological nature of such FTIs persists as long as there is a mobility gap at the resonant quasienergy. For strong enough disorder, this gap closes and all the states become localized as the system undergoes a transition to a trivial insulator. Interestingly, the effects of disorder are not necessarily adverse: we show that in the same quantum well, disorder can also induce a transition from a trivial to a topological system, thereby establishing a Floquet topological Anderson insulator (FTAI). We identify the conditions on the driving field necessary for observing such a transition.

Magnetic field induced superconductor-insulator transitions for ultra-thin Bi films on the different underlayers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Makise, K; Kawaguti, T; Shinozaki, B

2009-01-01

This work shows the experimental results of the superconductor-insulator (S-I) transition for ultra-thin Bi films in magnetic fields. The quench-condensed (q-c) Bi film onto insulating underlayers have been interpreted to be homogeneous. In contrast, the Bi film without underlayers has been regarded as a granular film. The electrical transport properties of ultra-thin metal films near the S-I transition depend on the structure of the film. In order to confirm the effect of the underlayer to the homogeneity of the superconducting films, we investigate the characteristics of S-I transitions of q-c nominally homogeneous Bi films on underlayers of two insulating materials, SiO, and Sb. Under almost the same deposition condition except for the material of underlayer, we prepared the Bi films by repeating the additional deposition and performed in-situ electrical measurement. It is found that the transport properties near the S-I transitions show the remarkable difference between two films on different underlayers. As for Bi films on SiO, it turned out that the temperature dependence of resistance per square R sq (T) of the field-tuned transition and the thickness-tuned transition shows similar behavior; it was a thermally activated form. On the other hand, the R sq (T) of Bi films on Sb for thickness-tuned S-I transition showed logarithmic temperature dependence, but that for field-tuned S-I transition showed a thermally activated form.

Superfluid and insulating phases in an interacting-boson model: mean-field theory and the RPA

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sheshadri, K.; Pandit, R.; Krishnamurthy, H.R.; Ramakrishnan, T.V.

1993-01-01

The bosonic Hubbard model is studied via a simple mean-field theory. At zero temperature, in addition to yielding a phase diagram that is qualitatively correct, namely a superfluid phase for non-integer fillings and a Mott transition from a superfluid to an insulating phase for integer fillings, this theory gives results that are in good agreement with Monte Carlo simulations. In particular, the superfluid fraction obtained as a function of the interaction strength U for both integer and non-integer fillings is close to the simulation results. In all phases the excitation spectra are obtained by using the random phase approximation (RPA): the spectrum has a gap in the insulating phase and is gapless (and linear at small wave vectors) in the superfluid phase. Analytic results are presented in the limits of large U and small superfluid density. Finite-temperature phase diagrams and the Mott-insulator-normal-phase crossover are also described. (orig.)

Metal-insulator transition in tin doped indium oxide (ITO) thin films: Quantum correction to the electrical conductivity

Science.gov (United States)

Kaushik, Deepak Kumar; Kumar, K. Uday; Subrahmanyam, A.

2017-01-01

Tin doped indium oxide (ITO) thin films are being used extensively as transparent conductors in several applications. In the present communication, we report the electrical transport in DC magnetron sputtered ITO thin films (prepared at 300 K and subsequently annealed at 673 K in vacuum for 60 minutes) in low temperatures (25-300 K). The low temperature Hall effect and resistivity measurements reveal that the ITO thin films are moderately dis-ordered (kFl˜1; kF is the Fermi wave vector and l is the electron mean free path) and degenerate semiconductors. The transport of charge carriers (electrons) in these disordered ITO thin films takes place via the de-localized states. The disorder effects lead to the well-known `metal-insulator transition' (MIT) which is observed at 110 K in these ITO thin films. The MIT in ITO thin films is explained by the quantum correction to the conductivity (QCC); this approach is based on the inclusion of quantum-mechanical interference effects in Boltzmann's expression of the conductivity of the disordered systems. The insulating behaviour observed in ITO thin films below the MIT temperature is attributed to the combined effect of the weak localization and the electron-electron interactions.

Optical transmission theory for metal-insulator-metal periodic nanostructures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Blanchard-Dionne Andre-Pierre

2016-11-01

Full Text Available A semi-analytical formalism for the optical properties of a metal-insulator-metal periodic nanostructure using coupled-mode theory is presented. This structure consists in a dielectric layer in between two metallic layers with periodic one-dimensional nanoslit corrugation. The model is developed using multiple-scattering formalism, which defines transmission and reflection coefficients for each of the interface as a semi-infinite medium. Total transmission is then calculated using a summation of the multiple paths of light inside the structure. This method allows finding an exact solution for the transmission problem in every dimension regime, as long as a sufficient number of diffraction orders and guided modes are considered for the structure. The resonant modes of the structure are found to be related to the metallic slab only and to a combination of both the metallic slab and dielectric layer. This model also allows describing the resonant behavior of the system in the limit of a small dielectric layer, for which discontinuities in the dispersion curves are found. These discontinuities result from the out-of-phase interference of the different diffraction orders of the system, which account for field interaction for both inner interfaces of the structure.

Gate-controlled metal-insulator transition in the LaAlO{sub 3}/SrTiO{sub 3} system with sub-critical LaAlO{sub 3} thickness

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lee, Joon Sung; Lee, Seung Ran; Chang, Jung-Won; Noh, Hyunho; Baasandorj, Lkhagvasuren; Shim, Seung-Bo; Kim, Jinhee [Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, Daejeon 305-600 (Korea, Republic of); Seung, Sang Keun; Shin, Hyun Sup; Song, Jonghyun [Department of Physics, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764 (Korea, Republic of)

2012-12-15

We studied the electrical conduction in the LaAlO{sub 3}/SrTiO{sub 3} (LAO/STO) interface electron system with a sub-critical LAO layer thickness of {proportional_to}3.5 unit cells (uc). It was found that the true dividing point between metallic and insulating behaviour without gating lies near the LAO thickness of 3.5 uc. Our marginally metallic 3.5 uc sample showed a sharp transition to insulating state at temperatures which strongly depended on the applied negative back-gate voltage. The superior gate-controllability of the sample was attributed to its sheet carrier density which was an order of magnitude lower than those of conducting LAO/STO samples with 4 uc or more of LAO layers. (copyright 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim) (orig.)

Effect of moisture on the electrical performance of transition-joints for medium voltage paper-insulated cables; Elektrische Beeintraechtigung durch Feuchtigkeit an oelgetraenkten Isolierpapieren. Mittelspannungsuebergangsmuffen

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cardinaels, Jos [Nexans Network Solution, Erembodegem (Belgium). Produktentwicklung; Baesch, Manfred [Nexans Power Accessories Germany, Dortmund (Germany). Produkt- und Qualitaetsmanagement

2009-06-15

Paper-insulated cables are constructed with an impervious metallic outer jacket in order to protect them against ingress of moisture. On 'modern' transition-joints to XLPE-insulated cables, this metal barrier is interrupted, hence, a risk of moisture penetration exists. This text presents measurements of water-vapour permeability of used materials and discusses the results of ageing tests. (orig.)

Optical study on metal-insulator change in PrFe4P12 under high pressure

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Irizawa, Akinori; Sato, Kazuyuki; Kobayashi, Masayo; Nanba, Takao; Matsunami, Masaharu; Sugawara, Hitoshi; Sato, Hideyuki

2007-01-01

The optical study has been performed on filled-skutterudite PrFe 4 P 12 applying pressure up to 16 GPa. The reflectivity at far-infrared (FIR) region showed that the metallic reflectivity looses its intensity and the weak phonon peaks at ambient pressure become prominent with pressures at lower temperature. It insists that the electronic states near Fermi level in this compound changes drastically from metallic properties to insulating ones at high pressures and low temperatures, and the insulating phase persists up to 16 GPa against the electrical resistivity data under pressure

Unconventional transformation of spin Dirac phase across a topological quantum phase transition

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Su-Yang; Neupane, Madhab; Belopolski, Ilya; Liu, Chang; Alidoust, Nasser; Bian, Guang; Jia, Shuang; Landolt, Gabriel; Slomski, Batosz; Dil, J. Hugo; Shibayev, Pavel P.; Basak, Susmita; Chang, Tay-Rong; Jeng, Horng-Tay; Cava, Robert J.; Lin, Hsin; Bansil, Arun; Hasan, M. Zahid

2015-01-01

The topology of a topological material can be encoded in its surface states. These surface states can only be removed by a bulk topological quantum phase transition into a trivial phase. Here we use photoemission spectroscopy to image the formation of protected surface states in a topological insulator as we chemically tune the system through a topological transition. Surprisingly, we discover an exotic spin-momentum locked, gapped surface state in the trivial phase that shares many important properties with the actual topological surface state in anticipation of the change of topology. Using a spin-resolved measurement, we show that apart from a surface bandgap these states develop spin textures similar to the topological surface states well before the transition. Our results offer a general paradigm for understanding how surface states in topological phases arise from a quantum phase transition and are suggestive for the future realization of Weyl arcs, condensed matter supersymmetry and other fascinating phenomena in the vicinity of a quantum criticality. PMID:25882717

Phase transitions and spin excitations of spin-1 bosons in optical lattice

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Min-Jie; Zhao, Bo

2018-03-01

For spin-1 bosonic system trapped in optical lattice, we investigate two main problems, including MI-SF phase transition and magnetic phase separations in MI phase, with extended standard basis operator (SBO) method. For both ferromagnetic (U2 0) systems, we analytically figure out the symmetry properties in Mott-insulator and superfluid phases, which would provide a deeper insight into the MI-SF phase transition process. Then by applying self-consistent approach to the method, we include the effect of quantum and thermal fluctuations and derive the MI-SF transition phase diagram, which is in quantitative agreement with recent Monte-Carlo simulation at zero temperature, and at finite temperature, we find the underestimation of finite-temperature-effect in the mean-field approximation method. If we further consider the spin excitations in the insulating states of spin-1 system in external field, distinct spin phases are expected. Therefore, in the Mott lobes with n = 1 and n = 2 atoms per site, we give analytical and numerical boundaries of the singlet, nematic, partially magnetic and ferromagnetic phases in the magnetic phase diagrams.

Filling-driven Mott transition in SU(N ) Hubbard models

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Seung-Sup B.; von Delft, Jan; Weichselbaum, Andreas

2018-04-01

We study the filling-driven Mott transition involving the metallic and paramagnetic insulating phases in SU (N ) Fermi-Hubbard models, using the dynamical mean-field theory and the numerical renormalization group as its impurity solver. The compressibility shows a striking temperature dependence: near the critical end-point temperature, it is strongly enhanced in the metallic phase close to the insulating phase. We demonstrate that this compressibility enhancement is associated with the thermal suppression of the quasiparticle peak in the local spectral functions. We also explain that the asymmetric shape of the quasiparticle peak originates from the asymmetry in the dynamics of the generalized doublons and holons.

Evaluated phase diagrams of binary metal-tellurium systems of the D-block transition elements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chattopadhyay, G.; Bharadwaj, S.R.

1989-01-01

The binary phase diagrams of metal-tellurium systems for twenty seven d-block transition elements have been critically evaluated. Complete phase diagrams are presented for the elements, chromium, manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, molybdenum, palladium, silver, lanthanum, platinum and gold, whereas, for scandium, titanium, vanadium, yttrium, zirconium, niobium, technitium, ruthenium, rhodium, hafnium, tantalum, tungsten , rhenium, osmium and iridium, the phase diagrams are incomplete and tentative. (author). 20 refs., 27 tabs., 27 figs

Development of insulating coatings for liquid metal blankets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Malang, S.; Borgstedt, H.U.; Farnum, E.H.; Natesan, K.; Vitkovski, I.V.

1994-07-01

It is shown that self-cooled liquid metal blankets are feasible only with electrically insulating coatings at the duct walls. The requirements on the insulation properties are estimated by simple analytical models. Candidate insulator materials are selected based on insulating properties and thermodynamic consideration. Different fabrication technologies for insulating coatings are described. The status of the knowledge on the most crucial feasibility issue, the degradation of the resisivity under irradiation, is reviewed

He atom surface spectroscopy: Surface lattice dynamics of insulators, metals and metal overlayers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1990-01-01

During the first three years of this grant (1985--1988) the effort was devoted to the construction of a state-of-the-art He atom scattering (HAS) instrument which would be capable of determining the structure and dynamics of metallic, semiconductor or insulator crystal surfaces. The second three year grant period (1988--1991) has been dedicated to measurements. The construction of the instrument went better than proposed; it was within budget, finished in the proposed time and of better sensitivity and resolution than originally planned. The same success has been carried over to the measurement phase where the concentration has been on studies of insulator surfaces, as discussed in this paper. The experiments of the past three years have focused primarily on the alkali halides with a more recent shift to metal oxide crystal surfaces. Both elastic and inelastic scattering experiments were carried out on LiF, NaI, NaCl, RbCl, KBr, RbBr, RbI, CsF, CsI and with some preliminary work on NiO and MgO

Reentrant metal-insulator transition in the Cu-doped manganites La1-x Pbx MnO3 (x˜0.14) single crystals

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, B. C.; Song, W. H.; Ma, Y. Q.; Ang, R.; Zhang, S. B.; Sun, Y. P.

2005-10-01

Single crystals of La1-x Pbx Mn1-y-z Cuy O3 ( x˜0.14 ; y=0 ,0.01,0.02,0.04,0.06; z=0.02 ,0.08,0.11,0.17,0.20) are grown by the flux growth technique. The effect of Cu doping at the Mn-site on magnetic and transport properties is studied. All studied samples undergo a paramagnetic-ferromagnetic transition. The Curie temperature TC decreases and the transition becomes broader with increasing Cu-doping level. The high-temperature insulator-metal (I-M) transition moves to lower temperature with increasing Cu-doping level. A reentrant M-I transition at the low temperature T* is observed for samples with y⩾0.02 . In addition, T* increases with increasing Cu-doping level and is not affected by applied magnetic fields. Accompanying the appearance of T* , there exists a large, almost constant magnetoresistance (MR) below T* except for a large MR peak near TC . This reentrant M-I transition is ascribed to charge carrier localization due to lattice distortion caused by the Cu doping at Mn sites.

Colossal magnetotransport phenomena due to phase competition in Pr1-x(CaySr1-y)xMnO3 single crystals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, J.; Zheng, H.; Mitchell, J.F.; Leighton, C.

2005-01-01

We present a magnetotransport investigation of single crystal Pr 0.65 (Ca 0.75 Sr 0.25 ) 0.35 MnO 3 , a manganite system specifically tailored to result in a close competition between ferromagnetic metallic and charge ordered antiferromagnetic insulating phases. Below 165 K these phases coexist spatially, with application of a magnetic field favoring the ferromagnetic metallic phase, leading to a magnetoresistance ratio of>10 10 in a 2 T magnetic field. Isothermal resistivity vs. field measurements reveal some previously unobserved features accompanying the insulator to metal transition. In addition to unexpected fine structure that occurs as the ferromagnetic metallic phase grows to engulf the entire sample, we observe an intriguing 'overshoot' phenomenon in both temperature and field-driven insulator-metal transitions. The resistivity is found to reach a sharp minimum (lower even than the pure ferromagnetic metallic phase) close to the point where the metallic phase percolates. These features are explored in detail and we discuss possible explanations of the effects in terms of pinning of the spatial boundary between the magnetic phases, and the unusual transport effects that could occur when the current flows through a barely percolated path

Metal non-metal transitions in doped semiconductors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Brezini, A.

1989-12-01

A disordered Hubbard model with diagonal disorder is used to examine the electron localization effects associated with both disorder and electron-electron interaction. Extensive results are reported on the ground state properties and compared with other theories. In particular two regimes are observed; when the electron-electron interaction U is greater than the disorder parameter and when is smaller. Furthermore the effect of including conduction-band minima into the calculation of metal-insulator transitions in doped Si and Ge is investigated with use of Berggren approach. Good agreement with experiments are found when both disorder and interactions are included. (author). 37 refs, 7 figs, 3 tabs

Insulator-to-Proton-Conductor Transition in a Dense Metal-Organic Framework.

Science.gov (United States)

Tominaka, Satoshi; Coudert, François-Xavier; Dao, Thang D; Nagao, Tadaaki; Cheetham, Anthony K

2015-05-27

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are prone to exhibit phase transitions under stimuli such as changes in pressure, temperature, or gas sorption because of their flexible and responsive structures. Here we report that a dense MOF, ((CH3)2NH2)2[Li2Zr(C2O4)4], exhibits an abrupt increase in proton conductivity from topotactic hydration (H2O/Zr = 0.5), wherein one-fourth of the Li ions are irreversibly rearranged and coordinated by water molecules. This structure further transforms into a third crystalline structure by water uptake (H2O/Zr = 4.0). The abrupt increase in conductivity is reversible and is associated with the latter reversible structure transformation. The H2O molecules coordinated to Li ions, which are formed in the first step of the transformation, are considered to be the proton source, and the absorbed water molecules, which are formed in the second step, are considered to be proton carriers.

Observation of a Slater-type metal-to-insulator transition in Sr$_2$IrO$_4$ from time-resolved photo-carrier dynamics

OpenAIRE

Hsieh, D.; Mahmood, F.; Torchinsky, D. H.; Cao, G.; Gedik, N.

2012-01-01

We perform a time-resolved optical study of Sr$_2$IrO$_4$ to understand the influence of magnetic ordering on the low energy electronic structure of a strongly spin-orbit coupled $J_{eff}$=1/2 Mott insulator. By studying the recovery dynamics of photo-carriers excited across the Mott gap, we find that upon cooling through the N\\'{e}el temperature $T_N$ the system evolves continuously from a metal-like phase with fast ($\\sim$50 fs) and excitation density independent relaxation dynamics to a ga...

Exotic topological insulator states and topological phase transitions in Sb2Se3-Bi2Se3 heterostructures

KAUST Repository

Zhang, Qianfan

2012-03-27

Topological insulator is a new state of matter attracting tremendous interest due to its gapless linear dispersion and spin momentum locking topological states located near the surface. Heterostructures, which have traditionally been powerful in controlling the electronic properties of semiconductor devices, are interesting for topological insulators. Here, we studied the spatial distribution of the topological state in Sb 2Se 3-Bi 2Se 3 heterostructures by first-principle simulation and discovered that an exotic topological state exists. Surprisingly, the state migrates from the nontrivial Bi 2Se 3 into the trivial Sb 2Se 3 region and spreads across the entire Sb 2Se 3 slab, extending beyond the concept of "surface" state while preserving all of the topological surface state characteristics. This unusual topological state arises from the coupling between different materials and the modification of electronic structure near Fermi energy. Our study demonstrates that heterostructures can open up opportunities for controlling the real-space distribution of the topological state and inducing quantum phase transitions between topologically trivial and nontrivial states. © 2012 American Chemical Society.

Nanostructured Anodic Multilayer Dielectric Stacked Metal-Insulator-Metal Capacitors.

Science.gov (United States)

Karthik, R; Kannadassan, D; Baghini, Maryam Shojaei; Mallick, P S

2015-12-01

This paper presents the fabrication of Al2O3/TiO2/Al2O3 metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor using anodization technique. High capacitance density of > 3.5 fF/μm2, low quadratic voltage coefficient of capacitance of dielectric stack required for high performance MIM capacitor.

Study of transition metal oxides by photoelectron spectroscopy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rao, C.N.R.; Sarma, D.D.; Vasudevan, S.; Hegde, M.S.

1979-01-01

Systematics in the X-ray photoelectron spectra (X.p.e.s.) of Ti, V, Cr, Mn and Nb oxides with the metal ion in different oxidation states as well as of related series of mono-, sesqui- and di-oxides of the first row of transition metals have been investigated in detail. Core level binding energies, spin-orbit splittings and exchange splittings are found to exhibit interesting variations with the oxidation state of the metal or the nuclear charge. The 3d binding energies of the monoxides show a proportionality to Goodenough's (R - RC). Other aspects of interest in the study are the satellite structure and final state effects in the X.p.e.s. of the oxides, and identification of different valence states in oxides of the general formulae Mn02n-1 and M304. The nature of changes in the 3d bands of oxides undergoing metal-insulator transitions is also indicated. (author)

Detection of topological phase transitions through entropy measurements: The case of germanene

Science.gov (United States)

Grassano, D.; Pulci, O.; Shubnyi, V. O.; Sharapov, S. G.; Gusynin, V. P.; Kavokin, A. V.; Varlamov, A. A.

2018-05-01

We propose a characterization tool for studies of the band structure of new materials promising for the observation of topological phase transitions. We show that a specific resonant feature in the entropy per electron dependence on the chemical potential may be considered as a fingerprint of the transition between topological and trivial insulator phases. The entropy per electron in a honeycomb two-dimensional crystal of germanene subjected to the external electric field is obtained from the first-principles calculation of the density of electronic states and the Maxwell relation. We demonstrate that, in agreement with the recent prediction of the analytical model, strong spikes in the entropy per particle dependence on the chemical potential appear at low temperatures. They are observed at the values of the applied bias both below and above the critical value that corresponds to the transition between the topological insulator and trivial insulator phases, whereas the giant resonant feature in the vicinity of the zero chemical potential is strongly suppressed at the topological transition point, in the low-temperature limit. In a wide energy range, the van Hove singularities in the electronic density of states manifest themselves as zeros in the entropy per particle dependence on the chemical potential.

Pressure-Induced Confined Metal from the Mott Insulator {\mathrm{Sr}}_3{\mathrm{Ir}}_2{{O}}_7

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ding, Yang; Yang, Liuxiang; Chen, Cheng-Chien; Kim, Heung-Sik; Han, Myung Joon; Luo, Wei; Feng, Zhenxing; Upton, Mary; Casa, Diego; Kim, Jungho; Gog, Thomas; Zeng, Zhidan; Cao, Gang; Mao, Ho-kwang; van Veenendaal, Michel

2016-05-24

The spin-orbit Mott insulator Sr₃Ir₂O₇ provides a fascinating playground to explore insulator-metal transition driven by intertwined charge, spin, and lattice degrees of freedom. Here, we report high-pressure electric resistance and resonant inelastic x-ray scattering measurements on single-crystal Sr₃Ir₂O₇ up to 63-65 GPa at 300 K. The material becomes a confined metal at 59.5 GPa, showing metallicity in the ab plane but an insulating behavior along the c axis. Such an unusual phenomenon resembles the strange metal phase in cuprate superconductors. Since there is no sign of the collapse of spin-orbit or Coulomb interactions in x-ray measurements, this novel insulator-metal transition is potentially driven by a first-order structural change at nearby pressures. Our discovery points to a new approach for synthesizing functional materials.

Negative differential resistance in the Peierls insulating phases of TTF-TCNQ

Science.gov (United States)

Tonouchi, Daiki; Matsushita, Michio M.; Awaga, Kunio

2017-07-01

Negative differential resistance (NDR) was observed in the most well known organic conductor, TTF-TCNQ, in its low-temperature Peierls insulator phase below 53 K. The voltage-current (V -I ) characteristics below this temperature, measured by a four-probe method, exhibited unique NDR behavior, in which the d V /d I versus conductivity (σ) plots had the inflection points at the three σ values without depending on temperature. These σ values were found to coincide with the conductivities at the three transition temperatures (53, 49, and 38 K) for the formation of the charge-density waves in TTF-TCNQ. This suggests that the electronic structure of the Peierls insulating phase of TTF-TCNQ is governed by the total carrier density, which is determined by not only thermal excitation but also carrier injection.

Quantum phase transition with dissipative frustration

Science.gov (United States)

Maile, D.; Andergassen, S.; Belzig, W.; Rastelli, G.

2018-04-01

We study the quantum phase transition of the one-dimensional phase model in the presence of dissipative frustration, provided by an interaction of the system with the environment through two noncommuting operators. Such a model can be realized in Josephson junction chains with shunt resistances and resistances between the chain and the ground. Using a self-consistent harmonic approximation, we determine the phase diagram at zero temperature which exhibits a quantum phase transition between an ordered phase, corresponding to the superconducting state, and a disordered phase, corresponding to the insulating state with localized superconducting charge. Interestingly, we find that the critical line separating the two phases has a nonmonotonic behavior as a function of the dissipative coupling strength. This result is a consequence of the frustration between (i) one dissipative coupling that quenches the quantum phase fluctuations favoring the ordered phase and (ii) one that quenches the quantum momentum (charge) fluctuations leading to a vanishing phase coherence. Moreover, within the self-consistent harmonic approximation, we analyze the dissipation induced crossover between a first and second order phase transition, showing that quantum frustration increases the range in which the phase transition is second order. The nonmonotonic behavior is reflected also in the purity of the system that quantifies the degree of correlation between the system and the environment, and in the logarithmic negativity as an entanglement measure that encodes the internal quantum correlations in the chain.

Chern structure in the Bose-insulating phase of Sr2RuO4 nanofilms

Science.gov (United States)

Nobukane, Hiroyoshi; Matsuyama, Toyoki; Tanda, Satoshi

2017-01-01

The quantum anomaly that breaks the symmetry, for example the parity and the chirality, in the quantization leads to a physical quantity with a topological Chern invariant. We report the observation of a Chern structure in the Bose-insulating phase of Sr2RuO4 nanofilms by employing electric transport. We observed the superconductor-to-insulator transition by reducing the thickness of Sr2RuO4 single crystals. The appearance of a gap structure in the insulating phase implies local superconductivity. Fractional quantized conductance was observed without an external magnetic field. We found an anomalous induced voltage with temperature and thickness dependence, and the induced voltage exhibited switching behavior when we applied a magnetic field. We suggest that there was fractional magnetic-field-induced electric polarization in the interlayer. These anomalous results are related to topological invariance. The fractional axion angle Θ = π/6 was determined by observing the topological magneto-electric effect in the Bose-insulating phase of Sr2RuO4 nanofilms.

Design of Chern insulating phases in honeycomb lattices

Science.gov (United States)

Pickett, Warren E.; Lee, Kwan-Woo; Pentcheva, Rossitza

2018-06-01

The search for robust examples of the magnetic version of topological insulators, referred to as quantum anomalous Hall insulators or simply Chern insulators, so far lacks success. Our groups have explored two distinct possibilities based on multiorbital 3d oxide honeycomb lattices. Each has a Chern insulating phase near the ground state, but materials parameters were not appropriate to produce a viable Chern insulator. Further exploration of one of these classes, by substituting open shell 3d with 4d and 5d counterparts, has led to realistic prediction of Chern insulating ground states. Here we recount the design process, discussing the many energy scales that are active in participating (or resisting) the desired Chern insulator phase.

Plasmons in metallic monolayer and bilayer transition metal dichalcogenides

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Andersen, Kirsten; Thygesen, Kristian S.

2013-01-01

We study the collective electronic excitations in metallic single-layer and bilayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) using time dependent density functional theory in the random phase approximation. For very small momentum transfers (below q≈0.02 Å−1), the plasmon dispersion follows the √q...

Step tunneling enhanced asymmetry in metal-insulator-insulator-metal (MIIM) diodes for rectenna applications

Science.gov (United States)

Alimardani, N.; Conley, J. F.

2013-09-01

We combine nanolaminate bilayer insulator tunnel barriers (Al2O3/HfO2, HfO2/Al2O3, Al2O3/ZrO2) deposited via atomic layer deposition (ALD) with asymmetric work function metal electrodes to produce MIIM diodes with enhanced I-V asymmetry and non-linearity. We show that the improvements in MIIM devices are due to step tunneling rather than resonant tunneling. We also investigate conduction processes as a function of temperature in MIM devices with Nb2O5 and Ta2O5 high electron affinity insulators. For both Nb2O5 and Ta2O5 insulators, the dominant conduction process is established as Schottky emission at small biases and Frenkel-Poole emission at large biases. The energy depth of the traps that dominate Frenkel-Poole emission in each material are estimated.

Topological phases of topological-insulator thin films

Science.gov (United States)

Asmar, Mahmoud M.; Sheehy, Daniel E.; Vekhter, Ilya

2018-02-01

We study the properties of a thin film of topological insulator material. We treat the coupling between helical states at opposite surfaces of the film in the properly-adapted tunneling approximation, and show that the tunneling matrix element oscillates as a function of both the film thickness and the momentum in the plane of the film for Bi2Se3 and Bi2Te3 . As a result, while the magnitude of the matrix element at the center of the surface Brillouin zone gives the gap in the energy spectrum, the sign of the matrix element uniquely determines the topological properties of the film, as demonstrated by explicitly computing the pseudospin textures and the Chern number. We find a sequence of transitions between topological and nontopological phases, separated by semimetallic states, as the film thickness varies. In the topological phase, the edge states of the film always exist but only carry a spin current if the edge potentials break particle-hole symmetry. The edge states decay very slowly away from the boundary in Bi2Se3 , making Bi2Te3 , where this scale is shorter, a more promising candidate for the observation of these states. Our results hold for free-standing films as well as heterostructures with large-gap insulators.

Stochastic IMT (Insulator-Metal-Transition Neurons: An Interplay of Thermal and Threshold Noise at Bifurcation

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abhinav Parihar

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Artificial neural networks can harness stochasticity in multiple ways to enable a vast class of computationally powerful models. Boltzmann machines and other stochastic neural networks have been shown to outperform their deterministic counterparts by allowing dynamical systems to escape local energy minima. Electronic implementation of such stochastic networks is currently limited to addition of algorithmic noise to digital machines which is inherently inefficient; albeit recent efforts to harness physical noise in devices for stochasticity have shown promise. To succeed in fabricating electronic neuromorphic networks we need experimental evidence of devices with measurable and controllable stochasticity which is complemented with the development of reliable statistical models of such observed stochasticity. Current research literature has sparse evidence of the former and a complete lack of the latter. This motivates the current article where we demonstrate a stochastic neuron using an insulator-metal-transition (IMT device, based on electrically induced phase-transition, in series with a tunable resistance. We show that an IMT neuron has dynamics similar to a piecewise linear FitzHugh-Nagumo (FHN neuron and incorporates all characteristics of a spiking neuron in the device phenomena. We experimentally demonstrate spontaneous stochastic spiking along with electrically controllable firing probabilities using Vanadium Dioxide (VO2 based IMT neurons which show a sigmoid-like transfer function. The stochastic spiking is explained by two noise sources - thermal noise and threshold fluctuations, which act as precursors of bifurcation. As such, the IMT neuron is modeled as an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (OU process with a fluctuating boundary resulting in transfer curves that closely match experiments. The moments of interspike intervals are calculated analytically by extending the first-passage-time (FPT models for Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (OU process to include a

Structural phases arising from reconstructive and isostructural transitions in high-melting-point oxides under hydrostatic pressure: A first-principles study

Science.gov (United States)

Tian, Hao; Kuang, Xiao-Yu; Mao, Ai-Jie; Yang, Yurong; Xu, Changsong; Sayedaghaee, S. Omid; Bellaiche, L.

2018-01-01

High-melting-point oxides of chemical formula A B O3 with A =Ca , Sr, Ba and B =Zr , Hf are investigated as a function of hydrostatic pressure up to 200 GPa by combining first-principles calculations with a particle swarm optimization method. Ca- and Sr-based systems: (1) first undergo a reconstructive phase transition from a perovskite state to a novel structure that belongs to the post-post-perovskite family and (2) then experience an isostructural transition to a second, also new post-post-perovskite state at higher pressures, via the sudden formation of a specific out-of-plane B -O bond. In contrast, the studied Ba compounds evolve from a perovskite phase to a third novel post-post-perovskite structure via another reconstructive phase transition. The original characteristics of these three different post-post-perovskite states are emphasized. Unusual electronic properties, including significant piezochromic effects and an insulator-metal transition, are also reported and explained.

Solid-gate control of insulator to 2D metal transition at SrTiO3 surface

Science.gov (United States)

Schulman, Alejandro; Stoliar, Pablo; Kitoh, Ai; Rozenberg, Marcelo; Inoue, Isao H.

As miniaturization of the semiconductor transistor approaches its limit, semiconductor industries are facing a major challenge to extend information processing beyond what can be attainable by conventional Si-based transistors. Innovative combinations of new materials and new processing platforms are desired. Recent discovery of the 2D electron gas (2DEG) at the surface of SrTiO3 (STO) and its electrostatic control, have carried it to the top of promising materials to be utilized in innovative devices. We report an electrostatic control of the carrier density of the 2DEG formed at the channel of bilayer-gated STO field-effect devices. By applying a gate electric field at room temperature, its highly insulating channel exhibits a transition to metallic one. This transition is accompanied by non-monotonic voltage-gain transfer characteristic with both negative and positive slope regions and unexpected enhancement of the sheet carrier density. We will introduce a numerical model to rationalize the observed features in terms of the established physics of field-effect transistors and the physics of percolation. Furthermore, we have found a clear signature of a Kondo effect that arises due to the interaction between the dilute 2DEG and localized Ti 3d orbitals originated by oxygen vacancies near the channel. On leave from CIC nanoGUNE, Spain.

Investigation of electronic phase segregation in La0.75Ca0.15Sr0.10MnO3 manganite

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Venkatesh, R.; Venkateshwarlu, D.; Pryds, Nini

2014-01-01

% in an applied magnetic field of 12T and 15% in 1T with a broad working range of 18K around 300K which is beneficial for room temperature colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) applications. The broad transition in temperature dependent zero field resistivity measurement is analyzed in the light of percolation model......The effect of electronic phase segregation in a broad metal-Insulator transition (MIT) observed in La0.75Ca0.25-xSrxMnO3 (x=0.1) composition is investigated using heat capacity, magnetization, electrical resistivity and magnetoresistance measurements. The negative magnetoresistance of 65...... indicates the abundance of insulating/metallic clusters in metallic/insulating region. A significant difference between the metallic fraction around the MIT and the ferromagnetic phases observed around the Curie temperature demonstrates the interplay between volume of itinerant and polaronic electronic...

Systematic study of metal-insulator-metal diodes with a native oxide

KAUST Repository

Donchev, E.; Gammon, P. M.; Pang, J. S.; Petrov, P. K.; Alford, N. McN.

2014-01-01

© 2014 SPIE. In this paper, a systematic analysis of native oxides within a Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) diode is carried out, with the goal of determining their practicality for incorporation into a nanoscale Rectenna (Rectifying Antenna

Tunable spin-charge conversion through topological phase transitions in zigzag nanoribbons

KAUST Repository

Li, Hang

2016-06-29

We study spin-orbit torques and charge pumping in magnetic quasi-one-dimensional zigzag nanoribbons with a hexagonal lattice, in the presence of large intrinsic spin-orbit coupling. Such a system experiences a topological phase transition from a trivial band insulator to a quantum spin Hall insulator by tuning of either the magnetization direction or the intrinsic spin-orbit coupling. We find that the spin-charge conversion efficiency (i.e., spin-orbit torque and charge pumping) is dramatically enhanced at the topological transition, displaying a substantial angular anisotropy.

Tunable spin-charge conversion through topological phase transitions in zigzag nanoribbons

KAUST Repository

Li, Hang; Manchon, Aurelien

2016-01-01

We study spin-orbit torques and charge pumping in magnetic quasi-one-dimensional zigzag nanoribbons with a hexagonal lattice, in the presence of large intrinsic spin-orbit coupling. Such a system experiences a topological phase transition from a trivial band insulator to a quantum spin Hall insulator by tuning of either the magnetization direction or the intrinsic spin-orbit coupling. We find that the spin-charge conversion efficiency (i.e., spin-orbit torque and charge pumping) is dramatically enhanced at the topological transition, displaying a substantial angular anisotropy.

Fermi points and topological quantum phase transitions in a multi-band superconductor.

Science.gov (United States)

Puel, T O; Sacramento, P D; Continentino, M A

2015-10-28

The importance of models with an exact solution for the study of materials with non-trivial topological properties has been extensively demonstrated. The Kitaev model plays a guiding role in the search for Majorana modes in condensed matter systems. Also, the sp-chain with an anti-symmetric mixing among the s and p bands is a paradigmatic example of a topological insulator with well understood properties. Interestingly, these models share the same universality class for their topological quantum phase transitions. In this work we study a two-band model of spinless fermions with attractive inter-band interactions. We obtain its zero temperature phase diagram, which presents a rich variety of phases including a Weyl superconductor and a topological insulator. The transition from the topological to the trivial superconducting phase has critical exponents different from those of Kitaev's model.

Entropic stabilisation of topologically close-packed phases in binary transition-metal alloys

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hammerschmidt, Thomas; Fries, Suzana G.; Steinbach, Ingo; Drautz, Ralf [ICAMS, Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum, Bochum (Germany); Seiser, Bernhard; Pettifor, David G. [Department of Materials, University of Oxford, Oxford (United Kingdom)

2010-07-01

The formation of topologically close-packed (tcp) phases in Ni-based superalloys leads to the degradation of the mechanical properties of the alloys. The precipitation of the tcp phases is attributed to refractory elements that are added in low concentration to improve creep resistance. It is well known that the structural stability of the tcp phases A15, {sigma} and {chi} is driven by the average d-band filling. For a direct comparison to experimental phase diagrams, we carried out extensive density-functional theory (DFT) calculations of the tcp phases A15, C14, C15, C36, {mu}, {sigma}, and {chi} in tcp-forming binary transition-metal (TM) systems. We observe several systems such as W-Re with positive values of the heat of formation for all tcp phases although some of the phases are observed experimentally. By combining our DFT total energies with the CALPHAD methodology, we can demonstrate that configurational entropy can stabilise the tcp phases in these systems.

Can disorder drive a Mott insulator into a metal in 2D?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Trivedi, Nandini; Heidarian, Dariush

2006-01-01

We find that isoelectronic disorder generates novel phases in a Mott insulator at half filling. For both binary disorder potentials and for random site disorder models, the Mott gap is destroyed locally generating puddles of gapless excitations. With increasing disorder, these puddles grow and rather surprising, form an inhomogeneous metal in 2D. Antiferromagnetic long range order is more robust than the Mott gap and persists into the metal, getting destroyed close to a critical disorder where doubly occupied and empty sites percolate. (author)

Evaluation of complexing agents and column temperature in ion chromatographic separation of alkali metals, alkaline earth metals and transition metals ion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kelkar, Anoop; Pandey, Ashish; Name, Anil B.; Das, D.K.; Behere, P.G.; Mohd Afzal

2015-01-01

The aim of ion chromatography method development is the resolution of all metal ions of interests. Resolution can be improved by changing the selectivity. Selectivity in chromatography can be altered by changes in mobile phase (eg eluent type, eluent strength) or through changes in stationary phase. Temperature has been used in altering the selectivity of particularly in reversed phase liquid chromatography and ion exchange chromatography. Present paper describe the retention behaviour of alkali metals, alkaline earth metals and transition metal ions on a silica based carboxylate function group containing analyte column. Alkali metals, alkaline earth metals and transition metal ions were detected by ion conductivity and UV-VIS detectors respectively

Quantum phases, supersolids and quantum phase transitions of interacting bosons in frustrated lattices

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ye, Jinwu; Chen, Yan

2013-01-01

By using the dual vortex method (DVM), we develop systematically a simple and effective scheme to use the vortex degree of freedoms on dual lattices to characterize the symmetry breaking patterns of the boson insulating states in the direct lattices. Then we apply our scheme to study quantum phases and phase transitions in an extended boson Hubbard model slightly away from 1/3 (2/3) filling on frustrated lattices such as triangular and Kagome lattice. In a triangular lattice at 1/3, we find a X-CDW, a stripe CDW phase which was found previously by a density operator formalism (DOF). Most importantly, we also find a new CDW-VB phase which has both local CDW and local VB orders, in sharp contrast to a bubble CDW phase found previously by the DOF. In the Kagome lattice at 1/3, we find a VBS phase and a 6-fold CDW phase. Most importantly, we also identify a CDW-VB phase which has both local CDW and local VB orders which was found in previous QMC simulations. We also study several other phases which are not found by the DVM. By analyzing carefully the saddle point structures of the dual gauge fields in the translational symmetry breaking sides and pushing the effective actions slightly away from the commensurate filling f=1/3(2/3), we classified all the possible types of supersolids and analyze their stability conditions. In a triangular lattice, there are X-CDW supersolid, stripe CDW supersolid, but absence of any valence bond supersolid (VB-SS). There are also a new kind of supersolid: CDW-VB supersolid. In a Kagome lattice, there are 6-fold CDW supersolid, stripe CDW supersolid, but absence of any valence bond supersolid (VB-SS). There are also a new kind of supersolid: CDW-VB supersolid. We show that independent of the types of the SS, the quantum phase transitions from solids to supersolids driven by a chemical potential are in the same universality class as that from a Mott insulator to a superfluid, therefore have exact exponents z=2, ν=1/2, η=0 (with

Thermal battery. [solid metal halide electrolytes with enhanced electrical conductance after a phase transition

Science.gov (United States)

Carlsten, R.W.; Nissen, D.A.

1973-03-06

The patent describes an improved thermal battery whose novel design eliminates various disadvantages of previous such devices. Its major features include a halide cathode, a solid metal halide electrolyte which has a substantially greater electrical conductance after a phase transition at some temperature, and a means for heating its electrochemical cells to activation temperature.

Pressure induced Ag{sub 2}Te polymorphs in conjunction with topological non trivial to metal transition

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhu, J.; Zhang, S. J., E-mail: sjzhang@iphy.ac.cn, E-mail: jin@iphy.ac.cn; Yu, X. H.; Yu, R. C.; Jin, C. Q., E-mail: sjzhang@iphy.ac.cn, E-mail: jin@iphy.ac.cn; Dai, X.; Fang, Z. [Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190 (China); Oganov, A. R. [Department of Geosciences, University of New York at Stony Brook (United States); Feng, W. X.; Yao, Y. G. [Department of Physics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing (China); Zhu, J. L. [High Pressure Science and Engineering Center, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada 89154 (United States); Zhao, Y. S. [Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190 (China); South University of Science and Technology of China, Shenzhen, Guangdong (China)

2016-08-15

Silver telluride (Ag{sub 2}Te) is well known as superionic conductor and topological insulator with polymorphs. Pressure induced three phase transitions in Ag{sub 2}Te have been reported in previous. Here, we experimentally identified high pressure phase above 13 GPa of Ag{sub 2}Te by using high pressure synchrotron x ray diffraction method in combination with evolutionary crystal structure prediction, showing it crystallizes into a monoclinic structure of space group C2/m with lattice parameters a = 6.081Å, b = 5.744Å, c = 6.797 Å, β = 105.53°. The electronic properties measurements of Ag{sub 2}Te reveal that the topologically non-trivial semiconducting phase I and semimetallic phase II previously predicated by theory transformed into bulk metals for high pressure phases in consistent with the first principles calculations.

Some characteristics of metal migration in or on the surface of insulators

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shields, R.B.

1978-03-01

This report reviews the migration of metals, principally silver, in or on the surface of insulating materials, by electrolytic processes. These processes are described for various metals, insulating materials and physical conditions, with numerous examples from the literature. While it is concluded that the only sure way to prevent degradation of insulation due to metal migration is to avoid the use of migration-prone metals, some other measures are mentioned which have been reported to reduce the extent of the growth. (author)

Quasiparticles and order parameter near quantum phase transition in heavy fermion metals

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shaginyan, V.R. [Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Gatchina 188300 (Russian Federation) and CTSPS, Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA 30314 (United States)]. E-mail: vrshag@thd.pnpi.spb.ru; Msezane, A.Z. [CTSPS, Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA 30314 (United States); Amusia, M.Ya. [Racah Institute of Physics, Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904 (Israel); A.F. Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg 194021 (Russian Federation)

2005-05-02

It is shown that the Landau paradigm based upon both the quasiparticle concept and the notion of the order parameter is valid and can be used to explain the anomalous behavior of the heavy fermion metals near quantum critical points. The understanding of this phenomenon has been problematic largely because of the absence of theoretical guidance. Exploiting this paradigm and the fermion condensation quantum phase transition, we investigate the anomalous behavior of the heavy electron liquid near its critical point at different temperatures and applied magnetic fields. We show that this anomalous behavior is universal and can be used to capture the essential aspects of recent experiments on heavy-fermion metals at low temperatures.

A theoretical model of grain boundary self-diffusion in metals with phase transitions (case study into titanium and zirconium)

Science.gov (United States)

Semenycheva, Alexandra V.; Chuvil'deev, Vladimir N.; Nokhrin, Aleksey V.

2018-05-01

The paper offers a model describing the process of grain boundary self-diffusion in metals with phase transitions in the solid state. The model is based on ideas and approaches found in the theory of non-equilibrium grain boundaries. The range of application of basic relations contained in this theory is shown to expand, as they can be used to calculate the parameters of grain boundary self-diffusion in high-temperature and low-temperature phases of metals with a phase transition. The model constructed is used to calculate grain boundary self-diffusion activation energy in titanium and zirconium and an explanation is provided as to their abnormally low values in the low-temperature phase. The values of grain boundary self-diffusion activation energy are in good agreement with the experiment.

Phase diagram and topological phases in the triangular lattice Kitaev-Hubbard model

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Kai; Yu, Shun-Li; Gu, Zhao-Long; Li, Jian-Xin

2016-09-01

We study the half-filled Hubbard model on a triangular lattice with spin-dependent Kitaev-like hopping. Using the variational cluster approach, we identify five phases: a metallic phase, a non-coplanar chiral magnetic order, a 120° magnetic order, a nonmagnetic insulator (NMI), and an interacting Chern insulator (CI) with a nonzero Chern number. The transition from CI to NMI is characterized by the change of the charge gap from an indirect band gap to a direct Mott gap. Based on the slave-rotor mean-field theory, the NMI phase is further suggested to be a gapless Mott insulator with a spinon Fermi surface or a fractionalized CI with nontrivial spinon topology, depending on the strength of the Kitaev-like hopping. Our work highlights the rising field in which interesting phases emerge from the interplay between band topology and Mott physics.

Phase Diagram of a Simple Model for Fractional Topological Insulator

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Hua; Yang, Kun

2012-02-01

We study a simple model of two species of (or spin-1/2) fermions with short-range intra-species repulsion in the presence of opposite (effetive) magnetic field, each at filling factor 1/3. In the absence of inter-species interaction, the ground state is simply two copies of the 1/3 Laughlin state, with opposite chirality. Due to the overall time-reversal symmetry, this is a fractional topological insulator. We show this phase is stable against moderate inter-species interactions. However strong enough inter-species repulsion leads to phase separation, while strong enough inter-species attraction drives the system into a superfluid phase. We obtain the phase diagram through exact diagonalization caluclations. Nature of the fractional topological insluator-superfluid phase transition is discussed using an appropriate Chern-Simons-Ginsburg-Landau effective field theory.

Tuning metal-insulator behavior in LaTiO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures integrated directly on Si(100) through control of atomic layer thickness

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmadi-Majlan, Kamyar; Chen, Tongjie; Lim, Zheng Hui; Conlin, Patrick; Hensley, Ricky; Chrysler, Matthew; Su, Dong; Chen, Hanghui; Kumah, Divine P.; Ngai, Joseph H.

2018-05-01

We present electrical and structural characterization of epitaxial LaTiO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures integrated directly on Si(100). By reducing the thicknesses of the heterostructures, an enhancement in carrier-carrier scattering is observed in the Fermi liquid behavior, followed by a metal to insulator transition in the electrical transport. The insulating behavior is described by activated transport, and its onset occurs near an occupation of 1 electron per Ti site within the SrTiO3, providing evidence for a Mott driven transition. We also discuss the role that structure and gradients in strain could play in enhancing the carrier density. The manipulation of Mott metal-insulator behavior in oxides grown directly on Si opens the pathway to harnessing strongly correlated phenomena in device technologies.

Coupling between crystal structure and magnetism in transition-metal oxides

Science.gov (United States)

Barton, Phillip Thomas

Transition-metal oxides exhibit a fascinating array of phenomena ranging from superconductivity to negative thermal expansion to catalysis. This dissertation focuses on magnetism, which is integral to engineering applications such as data storage, electric motors/generators, and transformers. The investigative approach follows structure-property relationships from materials science and draws on intuition from solid-state chemistry. The interplay between crystal structure and magnetic properties is studied experimentally in order to enhance the understanding of magnetostructural coupling mechanisms and provide insight into avenues for tuning behavior. A combination of diffraction and physical property measurements were used to study structural and magnetic phase transitions as a function of chemical composition, temperature, and magnetic field. The systems examined are of importance in Li-ion battery electrochemistry, condensed-matter physics, solid-state chemistry, and p-type transparent conducting oxides. The materials were prepared by solid-state reaction of powder reagents at high temperatures for periods lasting tens of hours. The first project discussed is of a solid solution between NiO, a correlated insulator, and LiNiO2, a layered battery cathode. Despite the deceptive structural and compositional simplicity of this system, a complete understanding of its complex magnetic properties has remained elusive. This study shows that nanoscale domains of chemical order form at intermediate compositions, creating interfaces between antiferromagnetism and ferrimagnetism that give rise to magnetic exchange bias. A simple model of the magnetism is presented along with a comprehensive phase diagram. The second set of investigations focus on the Ge-Co-O system where the spin-orbit coupling of Co(II) plays a significant role. GeCo2O 4 is reported to exhibit unusual magnetic behavior that arises from Ising spin in its spinel crystal structure. Studies by variable

Experimental evidence for stochastic switching of supercooled phases in NdNiO3 nanostructures

Science.gov (United States)

Kumar, Devendra; Rajeev, K. P.; Alonso, J. A.

2018-03-01

A first-order phase transition is a dynamic phenomenon. In a multi-domain system, the presence of multiple domains of coexisting phases averages out the dynamical effects, making it nearly impossible to predict the exact nature of phase transition dynamics. Here, we report the metal-insulator transition in samples of sub-micrometer size NdNiO3 where the effect of averaging is minimized by restricting the number of domains under study. We observe the presence of supercooled metallic phases with supercooling of 40 K or more. The transformation from the supercooled metallic to the insulating state is a stochastic process that happens at different temperatures and times in different experimental runs. The experimental results are understood without incorporating material specific properties, suggesting that the behavior is of universal nature. The size of the sample needed to observe individual switching of supercooled domains, the degree of supercooling, and the time-temperature window of switching are expected to depend on the parameters such as quenched disorder, strain, and magnetic field.

Thermophysical, Electrical, and Optical Properties of Selected Metal-Nonmetal Transition Materials: Comprehensive Bibliography with Typical Data.

Science.gov (United States)

1978-02-01

Brueckner, G., " Positron Annihilation in Vanadium(IV) Oxide and Vanadium(III) Oxide," Zentralinst. Kernforsch., Rossendorf, Dresden, ZEK-295, 93-4, 1975...Phys.-Solid State, 17(5), 851-5, 1975. A000130. Andreeff, A. and Brauer, G., " Positron Annihilation Study of the Metal- Insulator Transition in V20 3...thermal expansion at 298 K. Sample N o. a TH l Mkta1 l c phase X - 0 . 0 0 20.2 0.3 - b6 . 0.3 0.04 TI 24.4 -5.6 4-moleli Mgo 25.5 2.0 -9.5 * 2.0 16

Dynamic behavior of correlated electrons in the insulating doped semiconductor Si:P

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Ritz, Elvira

2009-06-04

At low energy scales charge transport in the insulating Si:P is dominated by activated hopping between the localized donor electron states. Theoretical models for a disordered electronic system with a long-range Coulomb interaction are appropriate to interpret the electric conductivity spectra. With a novel and advanced method we perform broadband phase sensitive measurements of the reflection coefficient from 45 MHz up to 5 GHz, employing a vector network analyzer with a 2.4 mm coaxial sensor, which is terminated by the sample under test. While the material parameters (conductivity and permittivity) can be easily extracted from the obtained impedance data if the sample is metallic, no direct solution is possible if the material under investigation is an insulator. Focusing on doped semiconductors with largely varying conductivity and dielectric function, we present a closed calibration and evaluation procedure with an optimized theoretical and experimental complexity, based on the rigorous solution for the electromagnetic field inside the insulating sample, combined with the variational principle. Basically no limiting assumptions are necessary in a strictly defined parameter range. As an application of our new method, we have measured the complex broadband microwave conductivity of Si:P in a broad range of phosphorus concentration n/n{sub c} from 0.56 to 0.9 relative to the critical value n{sub c}=3.5 x 10{sup 18} cm{sup -3} of the metal-insulator transition driven by doping at temperatures down to 1.1 K, and studied unresolved issues of fundamental research concerning the electronic correlations and the metal-insulator transition. (orig.)

Cooper Pairs in Insulators?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Valles, James

2008-01-01

Nearly 50 years elapsed between the discovery of superconductivity and the emergence of the microscopic theory describing this zero resistance state. The explanation required a novel phase of matter in which conduction electrons joined in weakly bound pairs and condensed with other pairs into a single quantum state. Surprisingly, this Cooper pair formation has also been invoked to account for recently uncovered high-resistance or insulating phases of matter. To address this possibility, we have used nanotechnology to create an insulating system that we can probe directly for Cooper pairs. I will present the evidence that Cooper pairs exist and dominate the electrical transport in these insulators and I will discuss how these findings provide new insight into superconductor to insulator quantum phase transitions.

Femtosecond Near Edge X-ray Absorption Measurement of the VO2 Phase Transition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cavalleri, A.; Chong, H.H.W.; Fourmaux, S.; Glover, T.E.; Heimann, P.A; Kieffer, J.C.; Padmore, H.A.; Schoenlein, R.W.

2004-01-01

The authors measure the insulator-to-metal transition in VO 2 using femtosecond Near-Edge X-ray Absorption. Sliced pulses of synchrotron radiation are used to detect the photo-induced dynamics at the 516-eV Vanadium L 3 edge

Pressure effect on magnetic and insulator-metal transition of La.sub.0.67./sub.Pb.sub.0.33./sub.Mn.sub.0.9./sub.Co.sub.0.1./sub.O.sub.2.97./sub. ceramic

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Mihalik, M.; Zentková, M.; Antoňák, M.; Arnold, Zdeněk; Kamarád, Jiří; Skorokhod, Yuriy; Gritzner, G.; Kiss, L. F.

2012-01-01

Roč. 32, č. 1 (2012), s. 145-149 ISSN 0895-7959. [Conference of the European High Pressure Research Group (EHPRG) /49./. Budapest, 28.08.2011-02.09.2011] Grant - others:VEGA(SK) 2/0057/27 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10100521 Keywords : magnetic transition: insulator-metal transition * hydrostatic pressure * manganite Subject RIV: BM - Solid Matter Physics ; Magnetism Impact factor: 0.901, year: 2012 www.tandfonline.com

Triply degenerate nodal points and topological phase transitions in NaCu3Te2

Science.gov (United States)

Xia, Yunyouyou; Li, Gang

2017-12-01

Quasiparticle excitations of free electrons in condensed-matter physics, characterized by the dimensionality of the band crossing, can find their elementary-particle analogs in high-energy physics, such as Majorana, Weyl, and Dirac fermions, while crystalline symmetry allows more quasiparticle excitations and exotic fermions to emerge. Using symmetry analysis and ab initio calculations, we propose that the three-dimensional honeycomb crystal NaCu3Te2 hosts triply degenerate nodal points (TDNPs) residing at the Fermi level. Furthermore, in this system we find a tunable phase transition between a trivial insulator, a TDNP phase, and a weak topological insulator (TI), triggered by a symmetry-allowed perturbation and the spin-orbital coupling (SOC). Such a topological nontrivial ternary compound not only serves as a perfect candidate for studying three-component fermions, but also provides an excellent playground for understanding the topological phase transitions between TDNPs, TIs, and trivial insulators, which distinguishes this system from other TDNP candidates.

The nonmetal-metal transition in solutions of metals in molten salts

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tosi, M.P.

1997-04-01

Solutions of metals in molten salts present a rich phenomenology: localization of electrons in disordered ionic media, activated electron transport increasing with metal concentration towards a nonmetal-metal (NM-M) transition, and liquid-liquid phase separation. A brief review of progress in the study of these systems is given in this article, with main focus on the NM-M transition. After recalling the known NM-M behaviour of the component elements in the case of expanded fluid alkali metals and mercury and of solid halogens under pressure, the article focuses on liquid metal - molten salt solutions and traces the different NM-M behaviours of the alkalis in their halides and of metals added to polyvalent metal halides. (author). 51 refs, 2 figs

Quasi-Particle Relaxation and Quantum Femtosecond Magnetism in Non-Equilibrium Phases of Insulating Manganites

Science.gov (United States)

Perakis, Ilias; Kapetanakis, Myron; Lingos, Panagiotis; Barmparis, George; Patz, A.; Li, T.; Wang, Jigang

We study the role of spin quantum fluctuations driven by photoelectrons during 100fs photo-excitation of colossal magneto-resistive manganites in anti-ferromagnetic (AFM) charge-ordered insulating states with Jahn-Teller distortions. Our mean-field calculation of composite fermion excitations demonstrates that spin fluctuations reduce the energy gap by quasi-instantaneously deforming the AFM background, thus opening a conductive electronic pathway via FM correlation. We obtain two quasi-particle bands with distinct spin-charge dynamics and dependence on lattice distortions. To connect with fs-resolved spectroscopy experiments, we note the emergence of fs magnetization in the low-temperature magneto-optical signal, with threshold dependence on laser intensity characteristic of a photo-induced phase transition. Simultaneously, the differential reflectivity shows bi-exponential relaxation, with fs component, small at low intensity, exceeding ps component above threshold for fs AFM-to-FM switching. This suggests the emergence of a non-equilibrium metallic FM phase prior to establishment of a new lattice structure, linked with quantum magnetism via spin/charge/lattice couplings for weak magnetic fields.

Infrared-transmittance tunable metal-insulator conversion device with thin-film-transistor-type structure on a glass substrate

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Takayoshi Katase

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Infrared (IR transmittance tunable metal-insulator conversion was demonstrated on a glass substrate by using thermochromic vanadium dioxide (VO2 as the active layer in a three-terminal thin-film-transistor-type device with water-infiltrated glass as the gate insulator. Alternative positive/negative gate-voltage applications induce the reversible protonation/deprotonation of a VO2 channel, and two-orders of magnitude modulation of sheet-resistance and 49% modulation of IR-transmittance were simultaneously demonstrated at room temperature by the metal-insulator phase conversion of VO2 in a non-volatile manner. The present device is operable by the room-temperature protonation in an all-solid-state structure, and thus it will provide a new gateway to future energy-saving technology as an advanced smart window.

Insulator-semimetallic transition in quasi-1D charged impurity-infected armchair boron-nitride nanoribbons

Science.gov (United States)

Dinh Hoi, Bui; Yarmohammadi, Mohsen

2018-04-01

We address control of electronic phase transition in charged impurity-infected armchair-edged boron-nitride nanoribbons (ABNNRs) with the local variation of Fermi energy. In particular, the density of states of disordered ribbons produces the main features in the context of pretty simple tight-binding model and Green's functions approach. To this end, the Born approximation has been implemented to find the effect of π-band electron-impurity interactions. A modulation of the π-band depending on the impurity concentrations and scattering potentials leads to the phase transition from insulator to semimetallic. We present here a detailed physical meaning of this transition by studying the treatment of massive Dirac fermions. From our findings, it is found that the ribbon width plays a crucial role in determining the electronic phase of disordered ABNNRs. The obtained results in controllable gap engineering are useful for future experiments. Also, the observations in this study have also fueled interest in the electronic properties of other 2D materials.

Weyl Semimetal to Metal Phase Transitions Driven by Quasiperiodic Potentials

Science.gov (United States)

Pixley, J. H.; Wilson, Justin H.; Huse, David A.; Gopalakrishnan, Sarang

2018-05-01

We explore the stability of three-dimensional Weyl and Dirac semimetals subject to quasiperiodic potentials. We present numerical evidence that the semimetal is stable for weak quasiperiodic potentials, despite being unstable for weak random potentials. As the quasiperiodic potential strength increases, the semimetal transitions to a metal, then to an "inverted" semimetal, and then finally to a metal again. The semimetal and metal are distinguished by the density of states at the Weyl point, as well as by level statistics, transport, and the momentum-space structure of eigenstates near the Weyl point. The critical properties of the transitions in quasiperiodic systems differ from those in random systems: we do not find a clear critical scaling regime in energy; instead, at the quasiperiodic transitions, the density of states appears to jump abruptly (and discontinuously to within our resolution).

Polymorphous band structure model of gapping in the antiferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases of the Mott insulators MnO, FeO, CoO, and NiO

Science.gov (United States)

Trimarchi, Giancarlo; Wang, Zhi; Zunger, Alex

2018-01-01

The existence of band gaps in both the antiferromagnetic (AFM) and paramagnetic (PM) phases of the classic NaCl-structure Mott insulators MnO, FeO, CoO, and NiO is traditionally viewed and taught as a manifestation of strong correlation whereby insulation results from electrons moving across the lattice forming states with doubly occupied d orbitals on certain atomic sites and empty d orbitals on other sites. Within such theories, the gap of the AFM and PM phases of these oxides emerges even in the absence of spatial symmetry breaking. The need for such a correlated picture is partially based on the known failure of the commonly used band models for the PM phase that assume for such a spin disordered state the macroscopically averaged NaCl structure, where all transition metal (TM) sites are symmetry-equivalent (a monomorphous description), producing a gapless PM state with zero magnetic moments, in sharp conflict with experiment. Here, we seek to understand the minimum theoretical description needed to capture the leading descriptors of ground state Mott insulation in the classic, 3 d monoxide Mott systems—gapping and moment formation in the AFM and PM phase. As noted by previous authors, the spin-ordered AFM phase in these materials already shows in band theory a significant band gap when one doubles the NaCl unit cell by permitting different potentials for transition-metal atoms with different spins. For the spin-disordered PM phase, we allow analogously larger NaCl-type supercells where each TM site can have different spin direction and local bonding environments (i.e., disordered), yet the total spin is zero. Such a polymorphous description has the flexibility to acquire symmetry-breaking energy-lowering patterns that can lift the degeneracy of the d orbitals and develop large on-site magnetic moments without violating the global, averaged NaCl symmetry. Electrons are exchanged between spin-up and spin-down bands to create closed-shell insulating

Phase transitions and equation of state of CsI under high pressure and the development of a focusing system for x-rays

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Wu, Yan.

1990-11-01

The phase transitions and equation of state of ionic solid cesium iodide were studied under high pressure and room temperature in a diamond anvil cell. The studies were carried out using both energy dispersive and angular dispersive diffraction methods on synchrotron radiation sources over the pressure range from atmospheric pressure to over 300 gigapascals (3 million atmospheres). CsI undergoes a distinct phase transition at about 40 GPa, a pressure that is much lower than the reported insulator-metal transition at 110 GPa, from the atmospheric pressure B2(CsCl) structure to an orthorhombic structure. At higher pressures, a continuous distortion in the structure was observed with a final structure similar to a hcp lattice under ultra high pressure. No volume discontinuity was observed at the insulator-metal transition. The newly found transition sequence is different from the result of previous static compression studies. The current structure has a smaller unit cell volume than the previous assignment. This has resolved a long existing controversy among the previous static compression studies, the dynamic compression studies, and the theoretical studies. The current results also explain the apparent discrepancy between the present study and the previous static studies. We also present the development of a focusing system for high energy x-rays (> 12 keV) that is particularly suited for high pressure diffraction studies. This system uses a pair of multilayer coated spherical mirrors in a Kirkpatrick-Baez geometry. A focused beam size less than 10 micron in diameter can be readily achieved with sufficient intensity to perform diffraction studies. 93 refs., 46 figs., 15 tabs.

Phase transitions and equation of state of CsI under high pressure and the development of a focusing system for x-rays

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wu, Yan.

1990-11-01

The phase transitions and equation of state of ionic solid cesium iodide were studied under high pressure and room temperature in a diamond anvil cell. The studies were carried out using both energy dispersive and angular dispersive diffraction methods on synchrotron radiation sources over the pressure range from atmospheric pressure to over 300 gigapascals (3 million atmospheres). CsI undergoes a distinct phase transition at about 40 GPa, a pressure that is much lower than the reported insulator-metal transition at 110 GPa, from the atmospheric pressure B2(CsCl) structure to an orthorhombic structure. At higher pressures, a continuous distortion in the structure was observed with a final structure similar to a hcp lattice under ultra high pressure. No volume discontinuity was observed at the insulator-metal transition. The newly found transition sequence is different from the result of previous static compression studies. The current structure has a smaller unit cell volume than the previous assignment. This has resolved a long existing controversy among the previous static compression studies, the dynamic compression studies, and the theoretical studies. The current results also explain the apparent discrepancy between the present study and the previous static studies. We also present the development of a focusing system for high energy x-rays (> 12 keV) that is particularly suited for high pressure diffraction studies. This system uses a pair of multilayer coated spherical mirrors in a Kirkpatrick-Baez geometry. A focused beam size less than 10 micron in diameter can be readily achieved with sufficient intensity to perform diffraction studies. 93 refs., 46 figs., 15 tabs

Critical Phenomena of the Disorder Driven Localization-Delocalization Transition

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Marc Ruehlaender

2001-01-01

Metal-to-insulator transitions are generally linked to two phenomena: electron-electron correlations and disorder. Although real systems are usually responding to a mixture of both, they can be classified as undergoing a Mott-transition, if the former process dominates, or an Anderson-transition, if the latter dominates. High-T c superconductors, e.g., are a candidate for the first class. Materials in which disorder drives the metal-to-insulator transition include doped semiconductors and amorphous materials. After briefly reviewing the previous research on transport in disordered materials and the disorder-induced metal-to-insulator transition, a summary of the model and the methods used in subsequent chapters is given

Structure and properties of transition metal-metalloid glasses based on refractory metals

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Johnson, W.L.; Williams, A.R.

1979-01-01

The structure and properties of several new transition metal-metalloid (TM/sub 1-x/M/sub x/) metallic glasses based on refractory transition metals (e.g. Mo, W, Ru etc.) have been systemically investigated as a function of composition. The structure of the alloys has been investigated by x-ray diffraction methods and measurements of superconducting properties, electrical resistivity, density, hardness, and mechanical behavior were made. These data are used in developing a novel description of the structure of TM/sub 1-x/M/sub x/ glasses. The experimental evidence suggests that an ideal amorphous phase forms at a specific composition x/sub c/ and that this phase has a well defined atomic short range order. For metallic glasses having x x/sub c/. This novel picture can explain the variation of many properties of these glasses with metalloid concentration

Phase stability and electronic structure of transition-metal aluminides

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carlsson, A.E.

1992-01-01

This paper will describe the interplay between die electronic structure and structural energetics in simple, complex, and quasicrystalline Al-transition metal (T) intermetallics. The first example is the Ll 2 -DO 22 competition in Al 3 T compounds. Ab-initio electronic total-energy calculations reveal surprisingly large structural-energy differences, and show that the phase stability of both stoichiometric and ternary-substituted compounds correlates closely with a quasigap in the electronic density of states (DOS). Secondly, ab-initio calculations for the structural stability of the icosahedrally based Al 12 W structure reveal similar quasigap effects, and provide a simple physical explanation for the stability of the complex aluminide structures. Finally, parametrized tight-binding model calculations for the Al-Mn quasicrystal reveal a large spread in the local Mn DOS behavior, and support a two-site model for the quasicrystal's magnetic behavior

Mott Transition of Fermionic Atoms in a Three-Dimensional Optical Trap

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Helmes, R. W.; Rosch, A.; Costi, T. A.

2008-01-01

We study theoretically the Mott metal-insulator transition for a system of fermionic atoms confined in a three-dimensional optical lattice and a harmonic trap. We describe an inhomogeneous system of several thousand sites using an adaptation of dynamical mean-field theory solved efficiently with the numerical renormalization group method. Above a critical value of the on-site interaction, a Mott-insulating phase appears in the system. We investigate signatures of the Mott phase in the density profile and in time-of-flight experiments

Metallic and insulating 3d transition-element monoxides and their stability

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Johansson, H.B.

1977-01-01

The binding properties of the 3d monoxides are studied in detail, and it is shown that the metallic character of TiO and VO is directly reflected in their heat of formation. The same holds true for NbO. From a stability analysis of the 3d monoxides versus decomposition, it is found that TiO, VO, and FeO are close to an instability. Further, it can be concluded that both ScO and CrO must be very near existence. The general occurrence of transition-metal monoxides is shown to be directly correlated with ionic properties of the transition elements. An investigation of the absorption edge in the 3d monoxides is also undertaken. The importance of the crystal-field splitting is noticed, and it is shown that the heat of formation of the monoxides can be used to derive the crystal-field parameter Δ. The change from a delocalized to a localized behavior of the d electrons in the 3d monoxides is compared with a similar change of the f electrons in the actinides. Some similarities between these two series of materials are pointed out

Ultrafast photo-induced hidden phases in strained manganite thin films

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Jingdi; McLeod, A. S.; Zhang, Gu-Feng; Stoica, Vladimir; Jin, Feng; Gu, Mingqiang; Gopalan, Venkatraman; Freeland, John W.; Wu, Wenbin; Rondinelli, James; Wen, Haidan; Basov, D. N.; Averitt, R. D.

Correlated transition metal oxides (TMOs) are particularly sensitive to external control because of energy degeneracy in a complex energy landscape that promote a plethora of metastable states. However, it remains a grand challenge to actively control and fully explore the rich landscape of TMOs. Dynamic control with pulsed photons can overcome energetic barriers, enabling access to transient or metastable states that are not thermally accessible. In the past, we have demonstrated that mode-selective single-laser-pulse excitation of a strained manganite thin film La2/3Ca1/3MnO3 initiates a persistent phase transition from an emergent antiferromagnetic insulating ground state to a ferromagnetic metallic metastable state. Beyond the photo-induced insulator to metal transition, we recently discovered a new peculiar photo-induced hidden phase, identified by an experimental approach that combines ultrafast pump-probe spectroscopy, THz spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, cryogenic near-field spectroscopy and SHG probe. This work is funded by the DOE, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Science under Award Numbers DE-SC0012375 and DE-SC0012592.

Spin-filtering effect and proximity effect in normal metal/ferromagnetic insulator/normal metal/superconductor junctions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li Hong; Yang Wei; Yang Xinjian; Qin Minghui; Xu Yihong

2007-01-01

Taking into account the thickness of the ferromagnetic insulator (FI), the spin-filtering effect and proximity effect in normal metal/ferromagnetic insulator/normal metal/superconductor (NM/FI/NM/SC) junctions are studied based on an extended Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk (BTK) theory. It is shown that a spin-dependent energy shift during the tunneling process induces splitting of the sub-energy gap conductance peaks and the spin polarization in the ferromagnetic insulator causes an imbalance of the peak heights. Different from the ferromagnet the spin-filtering effect of the FI cannot cause the reversion of the normalized conductance in NM/FI/NM/SC junctions

Filling- and interaction-driven Mott transition. Quantum cluster calculations within self-energy-functional theory

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Balzer, Matthias

2008-01-01

The central goal of this thesis is the examination of strongly correlated electron systems on the basis of the two-dimensional Hubbard model. We analyze how the properties of the Mott insulator change upon doping and with interaction strength. The numerical evaluation is done using quantum cluster approximations, which allow for a thermodynamically consistent description of the ground state properties. The framework of self-energy-functional theory offers great flexibility for the construction of cluster approximations. A detailed analysis sheds light on the quality and the convergence properties of different cluster approximations within the self-energy-functional theory. We use the one-dimensional Hubbard model for these examinations and compare our results with the exact solution. In two dimensions the ground state of the particle-hole symmetric model at half-filling is an antiferromagnetic insulator, independent of the interaction strength. The inclusion of short-range spatial correlations by our cluster approach leads to a considerable improvement of the antiferromagnetic order parameter as compared to dynamical mean-field theory. In the paramagnetic phase we furthermore observe a metal-insulator transition as a function of the interaction strength, which qualitatively differs from the pure mean-field scenario. Starting from the antiferromagnetic Mott insulator a filling-controlled metal-insulator transition in a paramagnetic metallic phase can be observed. Depending on the cluster approximation used an antiferromagnetic metallic phase may occur at first. In addition to long-range antiferromagnetic order, we also considered superconductivity in our calculations. The superconducting order parameter as a function of doping is in good agreement with other numerical methods, as well as with experimental results. (orig.)

Nonmonotonic anisotropy in charge conduction induced by antiferrodistortive transition in metallic SrTiO3

Science.gov (United States)

Tao, Qian; Loret, Bastien; Xu, Bin; Yang, Xiaojun; Rischau, Carl Willem; Lin, Xiao; Fauqué, Benoît; Verstraete, Matthieu J.; Behnia, Kamran

2016-07-01

Cubic SrTiO3 becomes tetragonal below 105 K. The antiferrodistortive (AFD) distortion leads to clockwise and counterclockwise rotation of adjacent TiO6 octahedra. This insulator becomes a metal upon the introduction of extremely low concentration of n -type dopants. However, signatures of the structural phase transition in charge conduction have remained elusive. Employing the Montgomery technique, we succeed in resolving the anisotropy of charge conductivity induced by the AFD transition, in the presence of different types of dopants. We find that the slight lattice distortion (liquids, the anisotropy has opposite signs for elastic and inelastic scattering. Increasing the concentration of dopants leads to a drastic shift in the temperature of the AFD transition either upward or downward. The latter result puts strong constraints on any hypothetical role played by the AFD soft mode in the formation of Cooper pairs and the emergence of superconductivity in SrTiO3.

Pressure induced insulator–metal transition and giant negative piezoresistance in Pr{sub 0.6}Ca{sub 0.4}Mn{sub 0.96}Al{sub 0.04}O{sub 3} polycrystal

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Arumugam, S., E-mail: sarumugam1963@yahoo.com [Centre for High Pressure Research, School of Physics, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirapalli 620024, Tamil Nadu (India); Thiyagarajan, R. [Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research (HPSTAR), Shanghai 201203 (China); Kalaiselvan, G.; Sivaprakash, P. [Centre for High Pressure Research, School of Physics, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirapalli 620024, Tamil Nadu (India)

2016-11-01

The effect of external hydrostatic pressure (P) on the magnetization (M) and resistivity (ρ) properties of charge-orbital (CO) ordered-insulating phase-separated manganite Pr{sub 0.6}Ca{sub 0.4}Mn{sub 0.96}Al{sub 0.04}O{sub 3} system is reported here. At ambient P, CO ordering transition and spin-canting in the AFM are observed at 223 K and 55 K respectively in M(T) and ρ(T) measurements. Application of P increases simultaneously the magnitude of magnetization (M) and transition temperature, and weakens the CO ordering in M(T) measurements up to 0.98 GPa. During ρ(T) measurements, P induces an insulator–metallic transition (T{sub IM}) at 1.02 GPa, and further increase of P up to 2.84 GPa leads to increase of T{sub IM} (dT{sub IM}/dP =21.6 K/GPa). ρ at T{sub IM} is reduced about three orders of magnitude at 2.84 GPa, and leads to the giant negative piezoresistance (~98%). These results are analyzed separately in two temperature regions i.e., below and above T{sub IM} by power function equation and small polaronic hopping model respectively. It is understood from these analyses that the application of P suppresses the Jahn–Teller distortions, electron–electron and electron–magnon scattering factors, and induces the insulator–metal transition in Pr{sub 0.6}Ca{sub 0.4}Mn{sub 0.96}Al{sub 0.04}O{sub 3} system. - Highlights: • Application of P on Pr{sub 0.6}Ca{sub 0.4}Mn{sub 0.96}Al{sub 0.04}O{sub 3} reduces resistivity (ρ) remarkably at low-temperatures, and exhibits an insulator to metallic transition at 1.02 GPa. • The reduction in ρ by P is about three orders of magnitude at 2.84 GPa, leads to the giant negative piezoresistance about 98%. • The effect of the suppression of Jahn–Teller distortions, electron–electron and electron–magnon scattering under an applied P exhibits to the metal-Insulator transition. • The phase-separation in this system has been tuned by both internal and external perturbations.

Spin-transport-phenomena in metals, semiconductors, and insulators

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Althammer, Matthias Klaus

2012-07-19

Assuming that one could deterministically inject, transport, manipulate, store and detect spin information in solid state devices, the well-established concepts of charge-based electronics could be transferred to the spin realm. This thesis explores the injection, transport, manipulation and storage of spin information in metallic conductors, semiconductors, as well as electrical insulators. On the one hand, we explore the spin-dependent properties of semiconducting zinc oxide thin films deposited via laser-molecular beam epitaxy (laser-MBE). After demonstrating that the zinc oxide films fabricated during this thesis have excellent structural, electrical, and optical properties, we investigate the spin-related properties by optical pump/probe, electrical injection/optical detection, and all electrical spin valve-based experiments. The two key results from these experiments are: (i) Long-lived spin states with spin dephasing times of 10 ns at 10 K related to donor bound excitons can be optically addressed. (ii) The spin dephasing times relevant for electrical transport-based experiments are {<=} 2 ns at 10 K and are correlated with structural quality. On the other hand we focus on two topics of current scientific interest: the comparison of the magnetoresistance to the magnetothermopower of conducting ferromagnets, and the investigation of pure spin currents generated in ferromagnetic insulator/normal metal hybrid structures. We investigate the magnetoresistance and magnetothermopower of gallium manganese arsenide and Heusler thin films as a function of external magnetic field orientation. Using a series expansion of the resistivity and Seebeck tensors and the inherent symmetry of the sample's crystal structure, we show that a full quantitative extraction of the transport tensors from such experiments is possible. Regarding the spin currents in ferromagnetic insulator/normal metal hybrid structures we studied the spin mixing conductance in yttrium iron garnet

ARTICLES: Nonlinear interaction of infrared waves on a VO2 surface at a semiconductor-metal phase transition

Science.gov (United States)

Berger, N. K.; Zhukov, E. A.; Novokhatskiĭ, V. V.

1984-04-01

The use of a semiconductor-metal phase transition for wavefront reversal of laser radiation was proposed. An investigation was made of nonlinear reflection of CO2 laser radiation at a phase transition in VO2. A three-wave interaction on a VO2 surface was achieved using low-power cw and pulsed CO2 lasers. In the first case, the intensity reflection coefficient was 0.5% for a reference wave intensity of 0.9 W/cm2 and in the second case, it was 42% for a threshold reference wave energy density of 0.6-0.8 mJ/cm2.

Spin-filter effect in normal metal/ferromagnetic insulator/normal metal/superconductor structures

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, Hong; Yang, Wei; Yang, Xinjian; Qin, Minghui; Guo, Jianqin

2007-01-01

Taking into account the thickness of the ferromagnetic insulator, the spin-filter effect in normal metal/ferromagnetic insulator/normal metal/superconductor (NM/FI/NM/SC) junctions is studied based on the Blonder-Tinkham-Klapwijk (BTK) theory. It is shown that a spin-dependent energy shift during the tunneling process induces splitting of the subgap resonance peaks. The spin polarization due to the spin-filter effect of the FI causes an imbalance of the peaks heights and can enhance the Zeeman splitting of the gap peaks caused by an applied magnetic field. The spin-filter effect has no contribution to the proximity-effect-induced superconductivity in NM interlayer

Magnetic transitions and phases in random-anisotropy magnets

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sellmyer, D.J.; Nafis, S.; O'Shea, M.J.

1988-01-01

The generality and universality of the Ising spin-glass-like phase transitions observed in several rare-earth, random-anisotropy magnets are discussed. Some uncertainties and practical problems in determining critical exponents are considered, and a comparison is made to insulating spin glasses and crystalline spin glasses where an apparent anisotropy-induced crossover from Heisenberg to Ising-like behavior is seen. The observation of a reentrant transition in a weak anisotropy system and its correlation with the theory of Chudnovsky, Saslow, and Serota [Phys. Rev. B 33, 251 (1986)] for the correlated spin glass is discussed

Magnetic transitions and phases in random-anisotropy magnets

Science.gov (United States)

Sellmyer, D. J.; Nafis, S.; O'Shea, M. J.

1988-04-01

The generality and universality of the Ising spin-glass-like phase transitions observed in several rare-earth, random-anisotropy magnets are discussed. Some uncertainties and practical problems in determining critical exponents are considered, and a comparison is made to insulating spin glasses and crystalline spin glasses where an apparent anisotropy-induced crossover from Heisenberg to Ising-like behavior is seen. The observation of a reentrant transition in a weak anisotropy system and its correlation with the theory of Chudnovsky, Saslow, and Serota [Phys. Rev. B 33, 251 (1986)] for the correlated spin glass is discussed.

Quantum phase transition of light in the Rabi–Hubbard model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schiró, M; Bordyuh, M; Öztop, B; Türeci, H E

2013-01-01

We discuss the physics of the Rabi–Hubbard model describing large arrays of coupled cavities interacting with two level atoms via a Rabi nonlinearity. We show that the inclusion of counter-rotating terms in the light–matter interaction, often neglected in theoretical descriptions based on Jaynes–Cumming models, is crucial to stabilize finite-density quantum phases of correlated photons with no need for an artificially engineered chemical potential. We show that the physical properties of these phases and the quantum phase transition occurring between them is remarkably different from those of interacting bosonic massive quantum particles. The competition between photon delocalization and Rabi nonlinearity drives the system across a novel Z 2 parity symmetry-breaking quantum phase transition between two gapped phases, a Rabi insulator and a delocalized super-radiant phase. (paper)

Strain-induced topological quantum phase transition in phosphorene oxide

Science.gov (United States)

Kang, Seoung-Hun; Park, Jejune; Woo, Sungjong; Kwon, Young-Kyun

Using ab initio density functional theory, we investigate the structural stability and electronic properties of phosphorene oxides (POx) with different oxygen compositions x. A variety of configurations are modeled and optimized geometrically to search for the equilibrium structure for each x value. Our electronic structure calculations on the equilibrium configuration obtained for each x reveal that the band gap tends to increase with the oxygen composition of x 0.5. We further explore the strain effect on the electronic structure of the fully oxidized phosphorene, PO, with x = 1. At a particular strain without spin-orbit coupling (SOC) is observed a band gap closure near the Γ point in the k space. We further find the strain in tandem with SOC induces an interesting band inversion with a reopened very small band gap (5 meV), and thus gives rise to a topological quantum phase transition from a normal insulator to a topological insulator. Such a topological phase transition is confirmed by the wave function analysis and the band topology identified by the Z2 invariant calculation.

Contribution to the investigation of phase transitions induced by irradiation in insulating crystalline ceramics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Simeone, D.

2003-01-01

The author gives a rather detailed overview of his research activities on the behaviour of ceramics subjected to irradiations by charged or not-charged particles. He reports the development of a new application of low incidence X ray diffraction to assess the evolutions within irradiated solids. Coupling this technique with Raman spectroscopy studies enabled the monitoring of order parameter evolution in these solids. He shows that, in some oxides, irradiation effects entail order-disorder type transitions and, more surprisingly, displacive phase transitions. From this experimental work, he developed a modelling of these phase transitions induced by irradiation. Quantitative data obtained on the evolutions of order parameters enabled these phase transitions to be explained within the frame of the thermodynamics of off-equilibrium phenomena

A Seismic Analysis for Reflective Metal Insulation

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Kyuhyung; Kim, Taesoon [KHNP CRI, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2016-10-15

U.S. NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) GSI- 191 (Generic Safety Issue-191) is concerned about the head-loss of emergency core cooling pumps caused by calcium silicate insulation debris accumulated on a sump screen when a loss of coolant accident (LOCA). In order to cope with the concern, many nuclear plants in U. S. have been replacing calcium silicate insulation in containment building with reflective metal insulation (RMI). In Korea, RMI has been used for only reactor vessels recently constructed, but the RMI was imported. Therefore, we have been developing the domestic design of RMI to supply to nuclear power plants under operation and construction in relation to the GSI-191. This paper covers that the structural integrity of the RMI assembly was evaluated under SSE (safety shutdown earthquake) load. An analysis model was built for the seismic test system of a reflective metal insulation assembly and pre-stress, modal, and spectrum analysis for the model were performed using a commercial structural analysis code, ANSYS. According to the results of the analyses, the buckles fastening the RMIs showed the structural integrity under the required response spectrum containing the safety shutdown earthquake loads applied to main components in containment building. Consequently, since the RMI isn't disassembled under the SSE load, the RMI is judged not to affect safety related components.

A Seismic Analysis for Reflective Metal Insulation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Kyuhyung; Kim, Taesoon

2016-01-01

U.S. NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) GSI- 191 (Generic Safety Issue-191) is concerned about the head-loss of emergency core cooling pumps caused by calcium silicate insulation debris accumulated on a sump screen when a loss of coolant accident (LOCA). In order to cope with the concern, many nuclear plants in U. S. have been replacing calcium silicate insulation in containment building with reflective metal insulation (RMI). In Korea, RMI has been used for only reactor vessels recently constructed, but the RMI was imported. Therefore, we have been developing the domestic design of RMI to supply to nuclear power plants under operation and construction in relation to the GSI-191. This paper covers that the structural integrity of the RMI assembly was evaluated under SSE (safety shutdown earthquake) load. An analysis model was built for the seismic test system of a reflective metal insulation assembly and pre-stress, modal, and spectrum analysis for the model were performed using a commercial structural analysis code, ANSYS. According to the results of the analyses, the buckles fastening the RMIs showed the structural integrity under the required response spectrum containing the safety shutdown earthquake loads applied to main components in containment building. Consequently, since the RMI isn't disassembled under the SSE load, the RMI is judged not to affect safety related components

Thermally tunable broadband omnidirectional and polarization-independent super absorber using phase change material VO2

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhejun Liu

Full Text Available In this letter, we numerically demonstrate a thermally tunable super absorber by using phase change material VO2 as absorbing layer in metal-insulator-metal structure. An omnidirectional super absorption at λ=2.56μm can be realized by heating the patterned grating VO2 film due to magnetic resonance mechanism. Furthermore, a broadband super absorption higher than 0.8 in the entire 1.6μm–4μm region is achieved when VO2 film is patterned chessboard structure and transformed to metal phase beyond transition temperature. This broadband super absorption can be fulfilled in a wide range of incident angle (0°–70° and under all polarization conditions. Keywords: Phase change material, Metal-insulator-metal, Super absorption, Magnetic resonance

Study of the effects of the interconnectivity of the metallic phase on the electrical and thermal behavior in alumina-ni and zirconia-ni interpenetrating phase composites (IPCs)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shahid, R.N.; Awais, H.B.; Mehmood, M.; Tariq, N.H.

2007-01-01

The addition of metallic inclusion in ceramic matrix can enhance the electrical and magnetic properties of the composite. Connectivity of conducting phase in an insulating matrix can be studied using electrical conductivity, thermal expansion, Hall Effect and by microscopic techniques. The wide range of application of such studies include, susceptor materials for induction heating, thin film resistors, gel formation permeability in porous structure and electromagnetic behavior of composites. The main phenomenon to be investigated is the insulating to conducting transition by the determination to of percolation range. This phenomenon depends on the concentration, shape, dimension and the crystallographic direction of the imbedded conducting particles. In this investigation variable concerning the percolation range of alumina- Ni and zirconia-Ni composites have been studied. The results provided the role of the size ratio of particles of matrix and the conducting phase, variation of resistance in terms of real part of impedance and thermal expansion on percolation effect. Scanning electron image have been used to study the percolation microscopically. (author)

Mott transitions in the periodic Anderson model

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Logan, David E; Galpin, Martin R; Mannouch, Jonathan

2016-01-01

The periodic Anderson model (PAM) is studied within the framework of dynamical mean-field theory, with particular emphasis on the interaction-driven Mott transition it contains, and on resultant Mott insulators of both Mott–Hubbard and charge-transfer type. The form of the PAM phase diagram is first deduced on general grounds using two exact results, over the full range of model parameters and including metallic, Mott, Kondo and band insulator phases. The effective low-energy model which describes the PAM in the vicinity of a Mott transition is then shown to be a one-band Hubbard model, with effective hoppings that are not in general solely nearest neighbour, but decay exponentially with distance. This mapping is shown to have a range of implications for the physics of the problem, from phase boundaries to single-particle dynamics; all of which are confirmed and supplemented by NRG calculations. Finally we consider the locally degenerate, non-Fermi liquid Mott insulator, to describe which requires a two-self-energy description. This is shown to yield a number of exact results for the associated local moment, charge, and interaction-renormalised levels, together with a generalisation of Luttinger’s theorem to the Mott insulator. (paper)

Phase transitions in finite systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chomaz, Ph. [Grand Accelerateur National d' Ions Lourds (GANIL), DSM-CEA / IN2P3-CNRS, 14 - Caen (France); Gulminelli, F. [Caen Univ., 14 (France). Lab. de Physique Corpusculaire

2002-07-01

In this series of lectures we will first review the general theory of phase transition in the framework of information theory and briefly address some of the well known mean field solutions of three dimensional problems. The theory of phase transitions in finite systems will then be discussed, with a special emphasis to the conceptual problems linked to a thermodynamical description for small, short-lived, open systems as metal clusters and data samples coming from nuclear collisions. The concept of negative heat capacity developed in the early seventies in the context of self-gravitating systems will be reinterpreted in the general framework of convexity anomalies of thermo-statistical potentials. The connection with the distribution of the order parameter will lead us to a definition of first order phase transitions in finite systems based on topology anomalies of the event distribution in the space of observations. Finally a careful study of the thermodynamical limit will provide a bridge with the standard theory of phase transitions and show that in a wide class of physical situations the different statistical ensembles are irreducibly inequivalent. (authors)

Phase transitions in finite systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chomaz, Ph.; Gulminelli, F.

2002-01-01

In this series of lectures we will first review the general theory of phase transition in the framework of information theory and briefly address some of the well known mean field solutions of three dimensional problems. The theory of phase transitions in finite systems will then be discussed, with a special emphasis to the conceptual problems linked to a thermodynamical description for small, short-lived, open systems as metal clusters and data samples coming from nuclear collisions. The concept of negative heat capacity developed in the early seventies in the context of self-gravitating systems will be reinterpreted in the general framework of convexity anomalies of thermo-statistical potentials. The connection with the distribution of the order parameter will lead us to a definition of first order phase transitions in finite systems based on topology anomalies of the event distribution in the space of observations. Finally a careful study of the thermodynamical limit will provide a bridge with the standard theory of phase transitions and show that in a wide class of physical situations the different statistical ensembles are irreducibly inequivalent. (authors)

Lateral topological crystalline insulator heterostructure

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Qilong; Dai, Ying; Niu, Chengwang; Ma, Yandong; Wei, Wei; Yu, Lin; Huang, Baibiao

2017-06-01

The emergence of lateral heterostructures fabricated by two-dimensional building blocks brings many exciting realms in material science and device physics. Enriching available nanomaterials for creating such heterostructures and enabling the underlying new physics is highly coveted for the integration of next-generation devices. Here, we report a breakthrough in lateral heterostructure based on the monolayer square transition-metal dichalcogenides MX2 (M  =  W, X  =  S/Se) modules. Our results reveal that the MX2 lateral heterostructure (1S-MX2 LHS) can possess excellent thermal and dynamical stability. Remarkably, the highly desired two-dimensional topological crystalline insulator phase is confirmed by the calculated mirror Chern number {{n}\\text{M}}=-1 . A nontrivial band gap of 65 meV is obtained with SOC, indicating the potential for room-temperature observation and applications. The topologically protected edge states emerge at the edges of two different nanoribbons between the bulk band gap, which is consistent with the mirror Chern number. In addition, a strain-induced topological phase transition in 1S-MX2 LHS is also revealed, endowing the potential utilities in electronics and spintronics. Our predictions not only introduce new member and vitality into the studies of lateral heterostructures, but also highlight the promise of lateral heterostructure as appealing topological crystalline insulator platforms with excellent stability for future devices.

Phase transitions enable computational universality in neuristor-based cellular automata

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pickett, Matthew D; Stanley Williams, R

2013-01-01

We recently demonstrated that Mott memristors, two-terminal devices that exhibit threshold switching via an insulator to conductor phase transition, can serve as the active components necessary to build a neuristor, a biomimetic threshold spiking device. Here we extend those results to demonstrate, in simulation, neuristor-based circuits capable of performing general Boolean logic operations. We additionally show that these components can be used to construct a one-dimensional cellular automaton, rule 137, previously proven to be universal. This proof-of-principle shows that localized phase transitions can perform spiking computation, which is of particular interest for neuromorphic hardware. (paper)

Semiconductor of spinons: from Ising band insulator to orthogonal band insulator.

Science.gov (United States)

Farajollahpour, T; Jafari, S A

2018-01-10

We use the ionic Hubbard model to study the effects of strong correlations on a two-dimensional semiconductor. The spectral gap in the limit where on-site interactions are zero is set by the staggered ionic potential, while in the strong interaction limit it is set by the Hubbard U. Combining mean field solutions of the slave spin and slave rotor methods, we propose two interesting gapped phases in between: (i) the insulating phase before the Mott phase can be viewed as gapping a non-Fermi liquid state of spinons by the staggered ionic potential. The quasi-particles of underlying spinons are orthogonal to physical electrons, giving rise to the 'ARPES-dark' state where the ARPES gap will be larger than the optical and thermal gap. (ii) The Ising insulator corresponding to ordered phase of the Ising variable is characterized by single-particle excitations whose dispersion is controlled by Ising-like temperature and field dependences. The temperature can be conveniently employed to drive a phase transition between these two insulating phases where Ising exponents become measurable by ARPES and cyclotron resonance. The rare earth monochalcogenide semiconductors where the magneto-resistance is anomalously large can be a candidate system for the Ising band insulator. We argue that the Ising and orthogonal insulating phases require strong enough ionic potential to survive the downward renormalization of the ionic potential caused by Hubbard U.

Semiconductor of spinons: from Ising band insulator to orthogonal band insulator

Science.gov (United States)

Farajollahpour, T.; Jafari, S. A.

2018-01-01

We use the ionic Hubbard model to study the effects of strong correlations on a two-dimensional semiconductor. The spectral gap in the limit where on-site interactions are zero is set by the staggered ionic potential, while in the strong interaction limit it is set by the Hubbard U. Combining mean field solutions of the slave spin and slave rotor methods, we propose two interesting gapped phases in between: (i) the insulating phase before the Mott phase can be viewed as gapping a non-Fermi liquid state of spinons by the staggered ionic potential. The quasi-particles of underlying spinons are orthogonal to physical electrons, giving rise to the ‘ARPES-dark’ state where the ARPES gap will be larger than the optical and thermal gap. (ii) The Ising insulator corresponding to ordered phase of the Ising variable is characterized by single-particle excitations whose dispersion is controlled by Ising-like temperature and field dependences. The temperature can be conveniently employed to drive a phase transition between these two insulating phases where Ising exponents become measurable by ARPES and cyclotron resonance. The rare earth monochalcogenide semiconductors where the magneto-resistance is anomalously large can be a candidate system for the Ising band insulator. We argue that the Ising and orthogonal insulating phases require strong enough ionic potential to survive the downward renormalization of the ionic potential caused by Hubbard U.

Structural phase transition at the percolation threshold in epitaxial (La0.7Ca0.3MnO3)1-x:(MgO)x nanocomposite films.

Science.gov (United States)

Moshnyaga, V; Damaschke, B; Shapoval, O; Belenchuk, A; Faupel, J; Lebedev, O I; Verbeeck, J; van Tendeloo, G; Mücksch, M; Tsurkan, V; Tidecks, R; Samwer, K

2003-04-01

'Colossal magnetoresistance' in perovskite manganites such as La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 (LCMO), is caused by the interplay of ferro-paramagnetic, metal-insulator and structural phase transitions. Moreover, different electronic phases can coexist on a very fine scale resulting in percolative electron transport. Here we report on (LCMO)1-x:(MgO)x (0 strain. The largest colossal magnetoresistance of 10(5)% was observed at the percolation threshold in the conductivity at xc 0.3, which is coupled to a structural phase transition from orthorhombic (0 < x < or 0.1) to rhombohedral R3c structure (0.33 < or = x < or = 0.8). An increase of the Curie temperature for the Rc phase was observed. These results may provide a general method for controlling the magnetotransport properties of manganite-based composite films by appropriate choice of the second phase.

Ion chromatography of transition metals: specific alteration of retention by complexation reactions in the mobile and on the stationary phase

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baumgartner, S.

1992-05-01

Ion chromatography of mono- and bivalent cations was performed on a conventional cation exchanger. The pH influence of an ethylene-diamine/citrate eluent was significant for the retention of alkaline earth and transition metals, but negligible for alkali ions. This was dealt with from a mechanistic point of view. Mobile phase optimization allowed fast isocratic analysis of mono- and bivalent cations and the separation of the radionuclides Cs-137 and Sr-90. A newly synthesized stationary phase containing iminodiacetate (IDA) function was investigated for cation chromatography using ethylenediamine/citrate eluents, polyhydroxy acid and dipicolinic acid. The column's high selectivity for transition metal ions in comparison to alkali and alkaline earth metals may be governed by the choice of complexing ability and pH of the eluent. Applications verified by atomic absorption spectroscopy include alkaline earth metals in beverages and the determination of Co, Cd and Zn in solutions containing more than 10 14 -fold excess of Na and Mg, such as sea water

Simulation studies of current transport in metal-insulator-semiconductor Schottky barrier diodes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chand, Subhash; Bala, Saroj

2007-01-01

The current-voltage characteristics of Schottky diodes with an interfacial insulator layer are analysed by numerical simulation. The current-voltage data of the metal-insulator-semiconductor Schottky diode are simulated using thermionic emission diffusion (TED) equation taking into account an interfacial layer parameter. The calculated current-voltage data are fitted into ideal TED equation to see the apparent effect of interfacial layer parameters on current transport. Results obtained from the simulation studies shows that with mere presence of an interfacial layer at the metal-semiconductor interface the Schottky contact behave as an ideal diode of apparently high barrier height (BH), but with same ideality factor and series resistance as considered for a pure Schottky contact without an interfacial layer. This apparent BH decreases linearly with decreasing temperature. The effects giving rise to high ideality factor in metal-insulator-semiconductor diode are analysed. Reasons for observed temperature dependence of ideality factor in experimentally fabricated metal-insulator-semiconductor diodes are analysed and possible mechanisms are discussed

Evolution and control of the phase competition morphology in a manganite film

OpenAIRE

Zhou, Haibiao; Wang, Lingfei; Hou, Yubin; Huang, Zhen; Lu, Qingyou; Wu, Wenbin

2015-01-01

The competition among different phases in perovskite manganites is pronounced since their energies are very close under the interplay of charge, spin, orbital and lattice degrees of freedom. To reveal the roles of underlying interactions, many efforts have been devoted towards directly imaging phase transitions at microscopic scales. Here we show images of the charge-ordered insulator (COI) phase transition from a pure ferromagnetic metal with reducing field or increasing temperature in a str...