2008/08/08 by Katharine Page, Taras Kolodiazhnyi, Thomas Proffen +2 · 1 citation
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Electronic and Structural Properties of Oxides #Ferroelectric and Piezoelectric Materials #Magnetic and transport properties of perovskites and related materials #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.101.205502
published as Phys. Rev. Lett 101 (2008) 205502(1-4) · 4 pages, 5 figures
arxiv created 2008/08/08 · openalex publication_date 2008/11/14 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The perovskite SrTiO3 becomes metallic with 0.03% to 0.1% Nb substitution on the Ti site, while BaTiO3 remains insulating above 10% Nb substitution. Given the nearly identical structure and electron counts of the two materials, the distinct ground states for low substitution have been a long-standing puzzle. Here we find from neutron studies of average and local structure the subtle yet critical difference that we believe underpins the distinct electronic properties in these fascinating materials. While SrTi0.875Nb0.125O3 possesses a distorted noncubic structure at 15 K, (Nb/Ti)O6 octahedra in the structure are regular. BaTi0.875Nb0.125O3, on the other hand, shows evidence for local cation off centering while retaining a cubic structure.