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Title: Strain engineering of the charge and spin-orbital interactions in Sr2IrO4

Journal Article · · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
ORCiD logo [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [1];  [3];  [4]; ORCiD logo [5];  [1];  [6];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [7];  [3]; ORCiD logo [8];  [1]; ORCiD logo [9]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Paul Scherrer Inst. (PSI), Villigen (Switzerland)
  2. Univ. of Alabama, Birmingham, AL (United States); Inst. of Science and Technology Austria, Klosterneuburg (Austria)
  3. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)
  4. European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), Grenoble (France)
  5. Paul Scherrer Inst. (PSI), Villigen (Switzerland); Physikalisch-Technische Bundensanstalt (PTB) Berlin (Germany)
  6. ETH Zurich (Switzerland). Lab. for Mesoscopic Systems; Paul Scherrer Inst. (PSI), Villigen (Switzerland). Lab. for Multiscale Materials Experiments
  7. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Ningbo (China). Ningbo Inst. of Materials Technology and Engineering, Key Lab. of Magnetic Materials and Devices; Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Ningbo (China). Ningbo Inst. of Materials Technology and Engineering. Zhejiang Province Key Lab. of Magnetic Materials and Application Technology
  8. Paul Scherrer Inst. (PSI), Villigen (Switzerland). Lab. for Multiscale Materials Experiments
  9. Univ. of Warsaw (Poland)

In the high spin–orbit-coupled Sr2IrO4, the high sensitivity of the ground state to the details of the local lattice structure shows a large potential for the manipulation of the functional properties by inducing local lattice distortions. We use epitaxial strain to modify the Ir–O bond geometry in Sr2IrO4 and perform momentum-dependent resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) at the metal and at the ligand sites to unveil the response of the low-energy elementary excitations. Furthermore, we observe that the pseudospin-wave dispersion for tensile-strained Sr2IrO4 films displays large softening along the [h,0] direction, while along the [h,h] direction it shows hardening. This evolution reveals a renormalization of the magnetic interactions caused by a strain-driven cross-over from anisotropic to isotropic interactions between the magnetic moments. Moreover, we detect dispersive electron–hole pair excitations which shift to lower (higher) energies upon compressive (tensile) strain, manifesting a reduction (increase) in the size of the charge gap. This behavior shows an intimate coupling between charge excitations and lattice distortions in Sr2IrO4, originating from the modified hopping elements between the t2g orbitals. Our work highlights the central role played by the lattice degrees of freedom in determining both the pseudospin and charge excitations of Sr2IrO4 and provides valuable information toward the control of the ground state of complex oxides in the presence of high spin–orbit coupling.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF); European Research Council (ERC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357; 200021_178867; 754411; 701647
OSTI ID:
1777985
Journal Information:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 117, Issue 40; ISSN 0027-8424
Publisher:
National Academy of SciencesCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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