Title: Perspective on solid-phase epitaxy as a method for searching novel topological phases in pyrochlore iridate thin films

Abstract

Pyrochlore iridates exhibit various novel topological phenomena due to their topology and electron correlation. Notably, pyrochlore iridate was the first proposed material system shown to host the time-reversal symmetry broken Weyl semimetal phase. After this profound theoretical proposal, extensive experimental attempts have been made to synthesize high-quality samples in both bulk and film forms. In particular, adjusting thin film geometry represents a practical way to tune the U/ t ( U: Coulomb interaction and t: for hopping parameter) and identify the various topological phases in the regime U ∼ λ ( λ: spin–orbit interaction). However, the instability of pyrochlore iridates at high temperature and low oxygen pressure has long been a barrier to growing pyrochlore iridate thin films by conventional film growth methods. To overcome this, pyrochlore iridate films have often been grown by the solid-phase epitaxy method, which uses a metastable amorphous layer grown at low temperature. During a high temperature post-annealing process, the layer in contact with a single crystalline substrate will crystallize epitaxially in the solid state by rearranging atoms at the interface. Here, we present a perspective on the solid-phase epitaxy as a method to synthesize epitaxial pyrochlore iridate thin films and a way to searchmore » for novel correlated phenomena.« less

Authors:

Kim, Woo Jin  ^[1];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Kim, Woo Jin"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-6787-3522"

Song, Jeongkeun ^[2]; Li, Yangyang ^[3]; Noh, Tae Won  ^[2]

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Noh, Tae Won"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-1905-2321"

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA (United States). Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Science (SIMES)
2. Institute for Basic Science, Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University (Korea, Republic of)
3. Shandong University, Jinan (China)

Publication Date:

Tue Aug 02 00:00:00 EDT 2022

Research Org.:

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division; Institute for Basic Science of Korea; Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; USDOE

Contributing Org.:

SIMES

OSTI Identifier:

1908436

Alternate Identifier(s):

OSTI ID: 1879606

Grant/Contract Number:  

AC02-76SF00515; IBS-R009-D1; GBMF9072

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

APL Materials

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 10; Journal Issue: 8; Journal ID: ISSN 2166-532X

Publisher:

American Institute of Physics (AIP)

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE