2010/05/18 by M. K. Stewart, Jian Liu, R. K. Smith +8
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Chemical and Physical Properties of Materials #Density of states #Drude model #Electronic and Structural Properties of Oxides #Electronic band structure #Electronic structure #Fermi energy #Fermi level #Magnetic and transport properties of perovskites and related materials #Optical conductivity #Pulsed laser deposition #Thin film #cond-mat.str-el
paper · pdf · doi:10.1063/1.3614019
published as J. of Appl. Phys. 110, 033514 (2011)
arxiv created 2010/05/18 · openalex publication_date 2011/08/01 · arxiv updated 2011/09/02 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The optical properties of LaNiO3 thin films are investigated over a wide energy and temperature range. Thin films of varying thickness were grown by pulsed laser deposition on LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 substrates. The optical conductivity data of the films reveal a number of interband transitions above 1 eV, which are in good agreement with band structure calculations. No well defined Drude peak is observed; however, in stark contrast with local-density approximation theory predicting a finite density of states at the Fermi energy. This experimental finding of a vanishing Drude spectral weight, compared to a finite electron kinetic energy obtained from band structure calculations, highlights the importance of strong electronic correlations in LaNiO3.