skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Ground-state oxygen holes and the metal–insulator transition in the negative charge-transfer rare-earth nickelates

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13017· OSTI ID:1341699
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [4];  [3];  [6]
  1. Paul Scherrer Inst. (PSI), Villigen (Switzerland). Research Dept. Synchrotron Radiation and Nanotechnology; Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II)
  2. Univ. of Geneva (Switzerland). Dept. of Quantum Matter Physics
  3. Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC (Canada). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC (Canada). Quantum Matter Inst.
  4. Univ. of Geneva (Switzerland). Dept. of Quantum Matter Physics
  5. Paul Scherrer Inst. (PSI), Villigen (Switzerland). Research Dept. Synchrotron Radiation and Nanotechnology; Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China). Beijing National Lab. for Condensed Matter Physics, and Inst. of Physics
  6. Paul Scherrer Inst. (PSI), Villigen (Switzerland). Research Dept. Synchrotron Radiation and Nanotechnology
  7. Univ. of Geneva (Switzerland). Dept. of Quantum Matter Physics; University College London, London (United Kingdom). London Centre for Nanotechnology and Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
  8. Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC (Canada). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy

The metal-insulator transitions and the intriguing physical properties of rare-earth perovskite nickelates have attracted considerable attention in recent years. However, a complete understanding of these materials remains elusive. Here, taking a NdNiO3 thin film as a representative example, we utilize a combination of x-ray absorption (XAS) and resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) spectroscopies to resolve important aspects of the complex electronic structure of the rare-earth nickelates. The unusual coexistence of bound and continuum excitations observed in the RIXS spectra provides strong evidence for the abundance of oxygen 2p holes in the ground state of these materials. Using cluster calculations and Anderson impurity model interpretation, we show that these distinct spectral signatures arise from a Ni 3d8 configuration along with holes in the oxygen 2p valence band, confirming suggestions that these materials do not obey a “conventional” positive charge-transfer picture, but instead exhibit a negative charge-transfer energy, in line with recent models interpreting the metal to insulator transition in terms of bond disproportionation.

Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC00112704
OSTI ID:
1341699
Report Number(s):
BNL-113446-2017-JA
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Vol. 7; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 144 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (58)

Structural, magnetic and electronic properties of perovskites (R = rare earth) journal February 1997
Systematic study of insulator-metal transitions in perovskites RNiO3 (R=Pr,Nd,Sm,Eu) due to closing of charge-transfer gap journal April 1992
Progress in perovskite nickelate research journal July 2008
Origins of bad-metal conductivity and the insulator–metal transition in the rare-earth nickelates journal March 2014
Sudden Appearance of an Unusual Spin Density Wave At the Metal-Insulator Transition in the Perovskites RNiO 3 (R = Pr, Nd) journal October 1992
Charge Disproportionation in R NiO 3 Perovskites: Simultaneous Metal-Insulator and Structural Transition in YNiO 3 journal May 1999
Heterointerface engineered electronic and magnetic phases of NdNiO3 thin films journal November 2013
Electric-Field Control of the Metal-Insulator Transition in Ultrathin NdNiO3 Films journal October 2010
Metal-Insulator Transition in Ultrathin LaNiO 3 Films journal June 2011
Low-dimensional Mott material: Transport in ultrathin epitaxial LaNiO3 films journal February 2010
Orbital Order and Possible Superconductivity in LaNiO 3 / LaMO 3 Superlattices journal January 2008
Exchange bias in LaNiO3–LaMnO3 superlattices journal January 2012
Asymmetric Orbital-Lattice Interactions in Ultrathin Correlated Oxide Films journal September 2011
Strain and composition dependence of orbital polarization in nickel oxide superlattices journal September 2013
Orbital reflectometry of oxide heterostructures journal February 2011
Band gaps and electronic structure of transition-metal compounds journal July 1985
R NiO 3 perovskites ( R =Pr,Nd): Nickel valence and the metal-insulator transition investigated by x-ray-absorption spectroscopy journal December 1992
Electronic structure of PrNiO 3 studied by photoemission and x-ray-absorption spectroscopy: Band gap and orbital ordering journal November 1995
Electronic structure and metal-insulator transition in LaNiO 3 δ journal March 2002
Electronic structure of La Ni O 3 x : An in situ soft x-ray photoemission and absorption study journal October 2007
Origin of the band gap in the negative charge-transfer-energy compound NaCuO 2 journal September 1991
Low-energy description of the metal-insulator transition in the rare-earth nickelates journal February 2015
Role of magnetic and orbital ordering at the metal-insulator transition in NdNiO 3 journal March 2006
Charge Ordering as Alternative to Jahn-Teller Distortion journal April 2007
Charge disproportionation in R NiO 3 perovskites ( R = rare earth) from high-resolution x-ray absorption spectroscopy journal December 2009
Direct Observation of Charge Order in an Epitaxial NdNiO 3 Film journal March 2002
Electric-field tuning of the metal-insulator transition in ultrathin films of LaNiO3 journal November 2009
Magnetic and electronic properties of RNiO 3 (R = Pr, Nd, Eu, Ho and Y) perovskites studied by resonant soft x-ray magnetic powder diffraction journal January 2011
Evolution of electronic structure across the rare-earth RNiO3 series journal April 2016
Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering spectra for electrons in solids journal February 2001
Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering studies of elementary excitations journal June 2011
Electronic structure studies of V 6 O 13 by soft x-ray emission spectroscopy: Band-like and excitonic vanadium states journal March 2004
Localized and delocalized Ti 3 d carriers in LaAlO 3 /SrTiO 3 superlattices revealed by resonant inelastic x-ray scattering journal May 2011
NiO as a test case for high resolution resonant inelastic soft x-ray scattering journal August 2005
Optical spectroscopy of the metal-insulator transition in NdNiO 3 journal February 1995
Mott Physics near the Insulator-To-Metal Transition in NdNiO 3 journal October 2011
Tuning the metal-insulator transition in NdNiO 3 heterostructures via Fermi surface instability and spin fluctuations journal July 2015
Orbital Engineering in Nickelate Heterostructures Driven by Anisotropic Oxygen Hybridization rather than Orbital Energy Levels journal September 2016
Intra- versus inter-site electronic excitations in NdNiO3 by resonant inelastic ultra-soft X-ray scattering at Ni 3p edge journal September 2005
Ordering and criticality in an underscreened Kondo chain journal May 2013
Key role of lattice symmetry in the metal-insulator transition of NdNiO3 films journal April 2016
High-resolution soft X-ray beamline ADRESS at the Swiss Light Source for resonant inelastic X-ray scattering and angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopies journal July 2010
SAXES, a high resolution spectrometer for resonant x-ray emission in the 400–1600eV energy range journal November 2006
Asymmetric orbital-lattice interactions in ultra-thin correlated oxide films text January 2010
Origins of bad metal conductivity and the insulator-metal transition in the rare-earth nickelates text January 2013
Heterointerface engineered electronic and magnetic phases of NdNiO3 thin films text January 2013
Evolution of Electronic Structure Across the Rare-Earth RNiO$_3$ Series preprint January 2015
Tuning the metal-insulator transition in NdNiO3 heterostructures via Fermi surface instability and spin-fluctuations text January 2015
Orbital engineering in nickelate heterostructures driven by anisotropic oxygen hybridization rather than orbital energy levels text January 2016
Spin and charge ordering in self-doped Mott insulators text January 1999
Anomalous variation of phonon Raman intensities near the metal-to-Mott-insulator transition in titanium oxide systems journal July 1994
Spin and charge ordering in self-doped Mott insulators journal May 2000
Observation of Two Nondispersive Magnetic Excitations in NiO by Resonant Inelastic Soft-X-Ray Scattering journal January 2009
Ultrafast Strain Engineering in Complex Oxide Heterostructures journal March 2012
Metal-Insulator Transition and Orbital Reconstruction in Mott-Type Quantum Wells Made of NdNiO 3 journal September 2012
Theory of the Magnetic and Metal-Insulator Transitions in R NiO 3 Bulk and Layered Structures journal March 2013
Charge Disproportionation without Charge Transfer in the Rare-Earth-Element Nickelates as a Possible Mechanism for the Metal-Insulator Transition journal March 2014
Orbital Engineering in Symmetry-Breaking Polar Heterostructures journal January 2015

Cited By (60)

Heteroanionic Materials by Design: Progress Toward Targeted Properties journal March 2019
Electron‐Doping Mottronics in Strongly Correlated Perovskite journal December 2019
Structurally triggered metal-insulator transition in rare-earth nickelates journal November 2017
Experimental evidence for bipolaron condensation as a mechanism for the metal-insulator transition in rare-earth nickelates journal January 2018
Electronic localization in CaVO3 films via bandwidth control journal February 2019
Electronic structure of the parent compound of superconducting infinite-layer nickelates journal January 2020
Complex magnetic order in nickelate slabs journal July 2018
Transmission zone plates as analyzers for efficient parallel 2D RIXS-mapping journal August 2017
Mott Transition and Magnetism in Rare Earth Nickelates and its Fingerprint on the X-ray Scattering journal September 2017
Unexpected 3+ valence of iron in FeO2, a geologically important material lying “in between” oxides and peroxides journal October 2017
Fingerprints of an orbital-selective Mott phase in the block magnetic state of BaFe2Se3 ladders journal June 2019
Unifying double flame spray pyrolysis with lanthanum doping to restrict cobalt–aluminate formation in Co/Al 2 O 3 catalysts for the dry reforming of methane journal January 2019
Metal–insulator-transition engineering by modulation tilt-control in perovskite nickelates for room temperature optical switching journal September 2018
Carrier localization in perovskite nickelates from oxygen vacancies journal October 2019
Ultrafast electron and spin dynamics of strongly correlated NdNiO 3 journal December 2018
Electronic structure of Pr 2 MnNiO 6 from x-ray photoemission, absorption and density functional theory journal October 2018
Fine structure of metal–insulator transition in EuO resolved by doping engineering journal March 2018
Rare-earth nickelates R NiO 3 : thin films and heterostructures journal February 2018
Conductivity noise across temperature-driven transitions of rare-earth nickelate heterostructures journal September 2019
Mass divergence type metal-insulator transition in charge transfer rare-earth nickelates journal September 2019
Distortion mode anomalies in bulk PrNiO 3 : Illustrating the potential of symmetry-adapted distortion mode analysis for the study of phase transitions journal November 2019
Possible absence of trimeron correlations above the Verwey temperature in Fe 3 O 4 journal February 2020
Bond disproportionation and dynamical charge fluctuations in the perovskite rare-earth nickelates journal November 2016
High-resolution resonant inelastic extreme ultraviolet scattering from orbital and spin excitations in a Heisenberg antiferromagnet journal November 2017
Phenomenological three-orbital spin-fermion model for cuprates journal July 2018
Epitaxial strain modulated electronic properties of interface controlled nickelate superlattices journal July 2018
Emergent c -axis magnetic helix in manganite-nickelate superlattices journal November 2018
Valence transition model of the pseudogap, charge order, and superconductivity in electron-doped and hole-doped copper oxides journal November 2018
Counter-thermal flow of holes in high-mobility LaNiO 3 thin films journal January 2019
Anomalous electron transport in epitaxial NdNiO 3 films journal June 2019
Doping Dependence of Collective Spin and Orbital Excitations in the Spin-1 Quantum Antiferromagnet La 2 x Sr x NiO 4 Observed by X Rays journal April 2017
Charge-Spin Correlation in van der Waals Antiferromagnet NiPS 3 journal March 2018
Disentangled Cooperative Orderings in Artificial Rare-Earth Nickelates journal April 2018
Continuum Charge Excitations in High-Valence Transition-Metal Oxides Revealed by Resonant Inelastic X-Ray Scattering journal September 2018
Hybridization-Switching Induced Mott Transition in A B O 3 Perovskites journal January 2019
Antiferromagnetic defect structure in LaNi O 3 δ single crystals journal June 2018
High-density electron doping of SmNiO 3 from first principles journal November 2019
Site-Selective Probe of Magnetic Excitations in Rare-Earth Nickelates Using Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering journal July 2018
Factors Controlling the Redox Activity of Oxygen in Perovskites: From Theory to Application for Catalytic Reactions journal May 2017
High pO2 Floating Zone Crystal Growth of the Perovskite Nickelate PrNiO3 journal June 2019
Complex magnetic order in nickelate slabs text January 2018
High-resolution resonant inelastic extreme ultraviolet scattering from orbital and spin excitations in a Heisenberg antiferromagnet text January 2017
Site-Selective Probe of Magnetic Excitations in Rare-Earth Nickelates Using Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering text January 2018
Transmission zone plates as analyzers for efficient parallel 2D RIXS-mapping text January 2017
Electronic localization in CaVO3 films via bandwidth control text January 2019
Bond disproportionation and dynamical charge fluctuations in the perovskite rare earth nickelates text January 2016
Mott Transition and Magnetism in Rare Earth Nickelates and its Fingerprint on the X-ray Scattering text January 2017
Electronic structure of Pr2MnNiO6 from x-ray photoemission, absorption and density functional theory text January 2017
Continuum Charge Excitations in High-Valence Transition-Metal Oxides Revealed by Resonant Inelastic X-ray Scattering text January 2018
Phenomenological Three-Orbital Spin-Fermion Model for Cuprates text January 2018
Emergent c-axis magnetic helix in manganite-nickelate superlattices text January 2018
Epitaxial strain modulated electronic properties of interface controlled nickelate superlattice text January 2018
Fingerprints of an Exotic Orbital-Selective Mott Phase in the Block Magnetic State of BaFe$_2$Se$_3$ Ladders text January 2018
Complex magnetic order in nickelate slabs text January 2019
High pO2 Floating Zone Crystal Growth of the Perovskite Nickelate PrNiO3 text January 2019
Conductivity noise across temperature driven transitions of rare-earth nickelate heterostructures text January 2019
Electronic Localization in CaVO3 Films via Bandwidth Control text January 2019
Electronic structure of the parent compound of superconducting infinite-layer nickelates text January 2019
Finite-temperature phase diagram of (111) nickelate bilayers journal September 2018
Observation of an antiferromagnetic quantum critical point in high-purity LaNiO$_3$ text January 2020

Similar Records

Hole and electron doping of RNiO{sub 3} (R = La, Nd)
Journal Article · Sat Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 1995 · Journal of Solid State Chemistry · OSTI ID:1341699

Evolution of electronic structure across the rare-earth RNiO3 series
Journal Article · Fri Jul 31 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Journal of Electron Spectroscopy and Related Phenomena · OSTI ID:1341699

Orbital polarization, charge transfer, and fluorescence in reduced-valence nickelates
Journal Article · Wed Apr 12 00:00:00 EDT 2023 · Physical Review. B · OSTI ID:1341699