Strain-induced nonsymmorphic symmetry breaking and removal of Dirac semimetallic nodal line in an orthoperovskite iridate
- Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Charles Univ., Prague (Czech Republic)
- Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Inst. de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), Bellaterra (Spain)
- Inst. of Physics ASCR, Prague (Czech Republic)
By using a combination of heteroepitaxial growth, structure refinement based on synchrotron x-ray diffraction, and first-principles calculations, we show that the symmetry-protected Dirac line nodes in the topological semimetallic perovskite SrIrO3 can be lifted simply by applying epitaxial constraints. In particular, the Dirac gap opens without breaking the Pbnm mirror symmetry. In virtue of a symmetry-breaking analysis, we demonstrate that the original symmetry protection is related to the n -glide operation, which can be selectively broken by different heteroepitaxial structures. Here, this symmetry protection renders the nodal line a nonsymmorphic Dirac semimetallic state. The results highlight the vital role of crystal symmetry in spin-orbit-coupled correlated oxides and provide a foundation for experimental realization of topological insulators in iridate-based heterostructures.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division; US Army Research Office (ARO); Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation of Spain (MINECO); Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231; AC02-06CH11357; W911NF-15-1-0017; MAT2012-33207; J3523-N27
- OSTI ID:
- 1238283
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1237794
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review B, Vol. 93, Issue 8; ISSN 2469-9950
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- ENGLISH
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