Abhijit Biswas

By Abhijit Biswas, Ki-Seok Kim and Yoon Hee Jeong

Transition metal oxides, in particular, 3d or 4d perovskites, have provided diverse emergent physics that originates from the coupling of various degrees of freedom such as spin, lattice, charge, orbital, and also disorder. 5d perovskites form a distinct class because they have strong spin-orbit coupling that introduces to the system an additional energy scale that is comparable to bandwidth and Coulomb correlation. Consequent new physics includes novel Jeff = 1/2 Mott insulators, metal–insulator transitions, spin liquids, and topological insulators. After highlighting some of the phenomena appearing in the Ruddlesden–Popper iridate series Srn+1IrnO3n+1 (n = 1, 2, and ∞), we focus on the transport properties of perovskite SrIrO3. Using epitaxial thin films on various substrates, we demonstrate that metal–insulator transitions can be induced in perovskite SrIrO3 by reducing its thickness or by imposing compressive strain. The metal–insulator transition driven by thickness reduction is due to disorder, but the metal–insulator transition driven by compressive strain is accompanied by peculiar non-Fermi liquid behaviors, possibly due to the delicate interplay between correlation, disorder, and spin-orbit coupling. We examine various theoretical frameworks to understand the non-Fermi liquid physics and metal–insulator transition that occurs in SrIrO3 and offer the Mott–Anderson–Griffiths scenario as a possible solution.

Part of the book: Perovskite Materials

By Abhijit Biswas and Yoon Hee Jeong

In recent decades, extensive studies have been conducted on controlling and engineering novel functionalities in transition metal oxide (TMO) heterostructures by epitaxial strain. In this chapter, we discuss popular transition metal oxide thin films in the context of various research fields that are extensively studied in condensed matter physics. These materials include La1.85Sr0.15CuO4 (a high temperature superconductor), SrRuO3 (a highly conductive ferromagnetic metal), La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 (a colossal magnetoresistive ferromagnetic metal), BiFeO3 (a multiferroic oxide), LaAlO3-SrTiO3 (a conductive oxide interface), and LaNiO3 (a strongly correlated metal). We focus on the appearance of novel functional properties from imposing epitaxial strain (compressive or tensile strain caused by the use of various lattice-mismatched substrates) on these films that cannot be observed in their bulk form. Subsequently, the intrinsic mechanisms for these novel phenomena are discussed based on experimental observations and theoretical modelling. We conclude that by using epitaxial strain, not only can thin film functionalities be tuned but many novel correlated phenomena can also be created. We believe that our collective efforts on the strain engineering of various transition metal oxide thin films will provide an insightful description of this emerging subject from a fundamental physics and nanoscale device applications point of view.

Part of the book: Epitaxy