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Title: Interface-engineered hole doping in Sr2IrO4/LaNiO3 heterostructure

Abstract

The relativistic Mott insulator Sr2IrO4 driven by large spin-orbit interaction is known for the Jeff = 1/2 antiferromagnetic state which closely resembles the electronic structure of parent compounds of superconducting cuprates. Here, we report the realization of hole-doped Sr2IrO4 by means of interfacial charge transfer in Sr2IrO4/LaNiO3 heterostructures. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy on Ir 4f edge along with the x-ray absorption spectroscopy at Ni L 2 edge confirmed that 5d electrons from Ir sites are transferred onto Ni sites, leading to markedly electronic reconstruction at the interface. Although the Sr2IrO4/LaNiO3 heterostructure remains non-metallic, we reveal that the transport behavior is no longer described by the Mott variable range hopping mode, but by the Efros-Shklovskii model. These findings highlight a powerful utility of interfaces to realize emerging electronic states of the Ruddlesden-Popper phases of Ir-based oxides.

Authors:
ORCiD logo; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)
OSTI Identifier:
1569088
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1599811; OSTI ID: 1609143
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231; GBMF4534; SC0012375; XDB07030200; 51522212; 51421002; 51672307; AC02-06CH11357
Resource Type:
Published Article
Journal Name:
New Journal of Physics
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: New Journal of Physics Journal Volume: 21 Journal Issue: 10; Journal ID: ISSN 1367-2630
Publisher:
IOP Publishing
Country of Publication:
United Kingdom
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; complex oxide heterostructure; x-ray adsorption spectroscopy; layered-Iridates; x-ray absorption spectroscopy

Citation Formats

Wen, Fangdi, Liu, Xiaoran, Zhang, Qinghua, Kareev, M., Pal, B., Cao, Yanwei, Freeland, J. W., N’Diaye, A. T., Shafer, P., Arenholz, E., Gu, Lin, and Chakhalian, J. Interface-engineered hole doping in Sr2IrO4/LaNiO3 heterostructure. United Kingdom: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1088/1367-2630/ab452c.
Wen, Fangdi, Liu, Xiaoran, Zhang, Qinghua, Kareev, M., Pal, B., Cao, Yanwei, Freeland, J. W., N’Diaye, A. T., Shafer, P., Arenholz, E., Gu, Lin, & Chakhalian, J. Interface-engineered hole doping in Sr2IrO4/LaNiO3 heterostructure. United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ab452c
Wen, Fangdi, Liu, Xiaoran, Zhang, Qinghua, Kareev, M., Pal, B., Cao, Yanwei, Freeland, J. W., N’Diaye, A. T., Shafer, P., Arenholz, E., Gu, Lin, and Chakhalian, J. Tue . "Interface-engineered hole doping in Sr2IrO4/LaNiO3 heterostructure". United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ab452c.
@article{osti_1569088,
title = {Interface-engineered hole doping in Sr2IrO4/LaNiO3 heterostructure},
author = {Wen, Fangdi and Liu, Xiaoran and Zhang, Qinghua and Kareev, M. and Pal, B. and Cao, Yanwei and Freeland, J. W. and N’Diaye, A. T. and Shafer, P. and Arenholz, E. and Gu, Lin and Chakhalian, J.},
abstractNote = {The relativistic Mott insulator Sr2IrO4 driven by large spin-orbit interaction is known for the Jeff = 1/2 antiferromagnetic state which closely resembles the electronic structure of parent compounds of superconducting cuprates. Here, we report the realization of hole-doped Sr2IrO4 by means of interfacial charge transfer in Sr2IrO4/LaNiO3 heterostructures. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy on Ir 4f edge along with the x-ray absorption spectroscopy at Ni L 2 edge confirmed that 5d electrons from Ir sites are transferred onto Ni sites, leading to markedly electronic reconstruction at the interface. Although the Sr2IrO4/LaNiO3 heterostructure remains non-metallic, we reveal that the transport behavior is no longer described by the Mott variable range hopping mode, but by the Efros-Shklovskii model. These findings highlight a powerful utility of interfaces to realize emerging electronic states of the Ruddlesden-Popper phases of Ir-based oxides.},
doi = {10.1088/1367-2630/ab452c},
journal = {New Journal of Physics},
number = 10,
volume = 21,
place = {United Kingdom},
year = {2019},
month = {10}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ab452c

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