Optical properties of LaNi O3 films tuned from compressive to tensile strain
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2020

Materials with strong electronic correlations host remarkable - and technologically relevant - phenomena such as magnetism, superconductivity, and metal-insulator transitions. Harnessing and controlling these effects is a major challenge, on which key advances are being made through lattice and strain engineering in thin films and heterostructures, leveraging the complex interplay between electronic and structural degrees of freedom. Here we show that the electronic structure of LaNiO3 can be tuned by means of lattice engineering. We use different substrates to induce compressive and tensile biaxial epitaxial strain in LaNiO3 thin films. Our measurements reveal systematic changes of the optical spectrum as a function of strain and, notably, an increase of the low-frequency free carrier weight as tensile strain is applied. Using density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we show that this apparently counterintuitive effect is due to a change of orientation of the oxygen octahedra. The calculations also reveal drastic changes of the electronic structure under strain, associated with a Fermi surface Lifshitz transition. We provide an online applet to explore these effects. The experimental value of integrated spectral weight below 2 eV is significantly (up to a factor of 3) smaller than the DFT results, indicating a transfer of spectral weight from the infrared to energies above 2 eV. The suppression of the free carrier weight and the transfer of spectral weight to high energies together indicate a correlation-induced band narrowing and free carrier mass enhancement due to electronic correlations. Our findings provide a promising avenue for the tuning and control of quantum materials employing lattice engineering.

Författare

I. Ardizzone

Université de Genève

M. Zingl

Flatiron Institute

J. Teyssier

Université de Genève

Hugo Strand

Flatiron Institute

Chalmers, Fysik, E-commons

O. Peil

Materials Center Leoben Forschung GmbH

J. Fowlie

Université de Genève

A. B. Georgescu

Flatiron Institute

S. Catalano

Université de Genève

CIC nanoGUNE

N. Bachar

Université de Genève

A. B. Kuzmenko

Université de Genève

M. Gibert

Universität Zürich

Université de Genève

J. M. Triscone

Université de Genève

A. Georges

Université de Genève

Flatiron Institute

École polytechnique

Collège de France

D. Van Der Marel

Université de Genève

Physical Review B

24699950 (ISSN) 24699969 (eISSN)

Vol. 102 15 155148

Ämneskategorier

Atom- och molekylfysik och optik

Annan fysik

Den kondenserade materiens fysik

DOI

10.1103/PhysRevB.102.155148

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2023-01-02