Spin-orbit semimetal SrIrO₃ in the two-dimensional limit

2017/06/27 by D. J. Groenendijk, C. Autieri, J. Girovsky +10 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.str-el #cond-mat.mes-hall

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.119.256403

published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 256403 (2017) · 6 pages, 4 figures

arxiv created 2017/06/27 · arxiv updated 2017/12/27

Abstract

We investigate the thickness-dependent electronic structure of ultrathin SrIrO₃ and discover a transition from a semimetallic to a correlated insulating state below 4 unit cells. Low-temperature magnetoconductance measurements show that spin fluctuations in the semimetallic state are significantly enhanced while approaching the transition point. The electronic structure is further studied by scanning tunneling spectroscopy, showing that 4 unit cells SrIrO₃ is on the verge of a gap opening. Our density functional theory calculations reproduce the critical thickness of the transition and show that the opening of a gap in ultrathin SrIrO₃ is accompanied by antiferromagnetic order.

Cited by

• Dimensionality-driven metal-insulator-transition in spin-orbit coupled SrIrO₃

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