Interfacial Octahedral Manipulation Imparts Hysteresis-Free Metal to Insulator Transition in Ultrathin Nickelate Heterostructure

Dong, Yongqi; Ma, Zhiyuan; Luo, Zhenlin; Zhou, Hua; Fong, Dillon D.; Wu, Wenbin; Gao, Chen

doi:10.1002/admi.201900644

Title: Interfacial Octahedral Manipulation Imparts Hysteresis-Free Metal to Insulator Transition in Ultrathin Nickelate Heterostructure

Journal Article · 09 July 2019 · Advanced Materials Interfaces

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/admi.201900644 · OSTI ID:1574391

Dong, Yongqi ^[1]; Ma, Zhiyuan ^[2];

^[3]; Zhou, Hua ^[2]; Fong, Dillon D. ^[4]; Wu, Wenbin ^[5]; Gao, Chen ^[6]

Univ. of Science and Technology of China, Hefei (China). National Synchrotron Radiation Lab.; Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Materials Science Division
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)
Univ. of Science and Technology of China, Hefei (China). National Synchrotron Radiation Lab.
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Materials Science Division
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Hefei (China). High Magnetic Field Lab.
Univ. of Science and Technology of China, Hefei (China). National Synchrotron Radiation Lab.; Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China). Beijing Advanced Sciences and Innovation Center

Much like epitaxial strain, engineering oxygen octahedral rotations (OORs) in perovskite oxide thin films can be a powerful means of manipulating their physical and chemical properties. Here, it is demonstrated that the fundamental character of the metal-insulator transition (MIT) can be sensitively controlled by the structure of the oxygen sublattice for NdNiO₃ thin films grown epitaxially on NdGaO₃ (110) substrates. The MIT is sharp and hysteretic for a Ni-O-Ni bond angle of 154.0° (6 nm thick film) like the bulk behavior, while it is diffuse and largely nonhysteretic for a bond angle of 149.5° (3 nm thick film), stemming from the smaller bond angle of the NdGaO₃ substrate. Using synchrotron X-ray diffraction to quantify the geometric framework of the oxygen sublattice, it is found that the influence of the substrate OORs propagates and decays after a few nanometers into the ultrathin film. The sublattice structure in the 6 nm thick film is similar to that for bulk NdNiO₃, leading to the sharp and hysteretic MIT.

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Research Organization:: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Key Research and Development Program of China; National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); China Scholarship Council; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-06CH11357

OSTI ID:: 1574391

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1532581

Journal Information:: Advanced Materials Interfaces, Vol. 6, Issue 17; ISSN 2196-7350

Publisher:: Wiley-VCHCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 6 works

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