We study interaction-induced Mott insulators, and their topological properties in a 1D non-Hermitian strongly-correlated spinful fermionic superlattice system with either nonreciprocal hopping or complex-valued interaction. For the nonreciprocal hopping case, the low-energy neutral excitation spectrum is sensitive to boundary conditions, which is a manifestation of the non-Hermitian skin effect. However, unlike the single-particle case, particle density of strongly correlated system does not suffer from the non-Hermitian skin effect due to the Pauli exclusion principle and repulsive interactions. Moreover, the anomalous boundary effect occurs due to the interplay of nonreciprocal hopping, superlattice potential, and strong correlations, where some in-gap modes, for both the neutral and charge excitation spectra, show no edge excitations defined via only the right eigenvectors. We show that these edge excitations of the in-gap states can be correctly characterized by only biorthogonal eigenvectors. Furthermore, the topological Mott phase, with gapless particle excitations around boundaries, exists even for the purely imaginary-valued interaction, where the continuous quantum Zeno effect leads to the effective on-site repulsion between two-component fermions.
We propose a phenomenological understanding of the recently discovered weak Mott insulator in the moiré superlattice of twisted bilayer graphene, especially the emergent superconductivity at low temperature within the weak Mott insulator phase, namely while lowering temperature, the longitudinal resistivity first grows below temperature $T_m$, but then rapidly drops to zero at even lower temperature $T_c$. An emergent superconductor in an insulator phase is very unusual. Here we propose that this phenomenon is due to the pure two-dimensional nature of the bilayer graphene moiré superlattice. W…
We study the effects of an artificial gauge field on the ground-state phases of the Bose-Hubbard model on a checkerboard superlattice in two dimensions, including the superfluid phase and the Mott and alternating Mott insulators. First, we discuss the single-particle Hofstadter problem, and show that the presence of a checkerboard superlattice gives rise to a magnetic flux-independent energy gap in the excitation spectrum. Then, we consider the many-particle problem, and derive an analytical mean-field expression for the superfluid-Mott and superfluid--alternating-Mott insulator phase transiti…
Mott insulator plays a central role in strongly correlated physics, where the repulsive Coulomb interaction dominates over the electron kinetic energy and leads to insulating states with one electron occupying each unit cell. Doped Mott insulator is often described by the Hubbard model3, which can give rise to other correlated phenomena such as unusual magnetism and even high-temperature superconductivity. A tunable Mott insulator, where the competition between the Coulomb interaction and the kinetic energy can be varied in situ, can provide an invaluable model system for the study of Mott phy…
We introduce the notion of superstructure Mottness to describe the Mott and Wigner-Mott transition in doped strongly correlated electron systems at commensurate filling fractions away from one electron per site. We show that superstructure Mottness emerges in an inhomogeneous electron system when the superstructure contains an odd number of electrons per supercell. We argue that superstructure Mottness exists even in the absence of translation symmetry breaking by a superlattice, provided that the extended or intersite Coulomb interaction is strong. In the latter case, superstructure Mottness …
We study the topological properties of Bose-Mott insulators in one-dimensional non-Hermitian superlattices, which may serve as effective Hamiltonians for cold atomic optical systems with either two-body loss or one-body loss. We find that in the strongly repulsive limit, the Mott insulator states of the Bose-Hubbard model with a finite two-body loss under integer fillings are topological insulators characterized by a finite charge gap, nonzero integer Chern numbers, and nontrivial edge modes in a low-energy excitation spectrum under an open boundary condition. The two-body loss suppressed by t…
We investigate the low-temperature electrical and thermal transport properties in atomically precise metallic heterostructures involving strongly-correlated electron systems. The model of the Mott-insulator/ band-insulator superlattice was discussed in the framework of the slave-boson mean-field approximation and transport quantities were derived by use of the Boltzmann transport equation in the relaxation-time approximation. The results for the optical conductivity are in good agreement with recently published experimental data on (LaTiO$_3)_N$/(SrTiO$_3)_M$ superlattices and allow us to esti…
We use quantum Monte Carlo and exact diagonalization calculations to study the Mott-insulator to superconductor quantum phase transition in a two-dimensional fermionic Hubbard model with attractive interactions in the presence of a superlattice potential. The model introduced offers unique possibilities to study such transitions in optical lattice experiments. We show that, in regimes with moderate to strong interactions, the transition belongs to the 3D-XY universality class. We also explore the character of the lowest energy charge excitations in the insulating and superconducting phases and…
We investigate the electronic reconstruction in (LaNiO$_{3}$)$_n$/(LaAlO$_{3}$)$_3$ (n=3, 5 and 10) superlattices due to the quantum confinement (QC) by d.c. transport and resonant soft x-ray absorption spectroscopy. In proximity to the QC limit, a Mott-type transition from an itinerant electron behavior to a localized state is observed. The system exhibits tendency towards charge-order during the transition. ab initio cluster calculations are in good agreement with the absorption spectra, indicating that the apical ligand hole density is highly suppressed resulting in a strong modification of…
We study Mott insulators of fermionic alkaline earth atoms, described by Heisenberg spin models with enhanced SU(N) symmetry. In dramatic contrast to SU(2) magnetism, more than two spins are required to form a singlet. On the square lattice, the classical ground state is highly degenerate and magnetic order is thus unlikely. In a large-N limit, we find a chiral spin liquid ground state with topological order and Abelian fractional statistics. We discuss its experimental detection. Chiral spin liquids with non-Abelian anyons may also be realizable with alkaline earth atoms.
Spin-orbit-coupled Mott iridates show great similarity with parent compounds of superconducting cuprates, attracting extensive research interests especially for their electron-doped states. However, previous experiments are largely limited within a small doping range due to the absence of effective dopants, and therefore the electron-doped phase diagram remains elusive. Here we utilize an ionic-liquid-gating induced protonation method to achieve electron-doping into a 5d Mott-insulator built with SrIrO3/SrTiO3 superlattice, and achieve a systematic mapping of its electron-doped phase diagram w…
The evolution of a Landau Fermi liquid into a nonmagnetic Mott insulator with increasing electronic interactions is one of the most puzzling quantum phase transitions in physics. The vicinity of the transition is believed to host exotic states of matter such as quantum spin liquids, exciton condensates and unconventional superconductivity. Semiconductor moiré materials realize a highly controllable Hubbard model simulator on a triangular lattice, providing a unique opportunity to drive a metal-insulator transition (MIT) via continuous tuning of the electronic interactions. Here, by electricall…
We report on the epitaxial strain-driven electronic and antiferromagnetic modulations of a pseudospin-half square lattice realized in superlattices of (SrIrO3)1/(SrTiO3)1. With increasing compressive strain, we find the low-temperature insulating behavior to be strongly suppressed with a corresponding systematic reduction of both the Neel temperature and the staggered moment. However, despite such a suppression, the system remains weakly insulating above the Neel transition. The emergence of metallicity is observed under large compressive strain but only at temperatures far above the Néel tran…
Two dimensional materials and their heterostructures constitute a promising platform to study correlated electronic states as well as many body physics of excitons. Here, we present experiments that unite these hitherto separate efforts and show how excitons that are dynamically screened by itinerant electrons to form exciton-polarons, can be used as a spectroscopic tool to study interaction-induced incompressible states of electrons. The MoSe$_2$/hBN/MoSe$_2$ heterostructure that we study exhibits a long-period Moiré superlattice as evidenced by coherent-hole tunneling mediated avoided crossi…
A set of broken symmetry two-dimensional ground states are predicted in (111)-oriented (LaNiO$_3$)$_N$/(LaAlO$_3$)$_M$ ($N$/$M$) superlattices, based on density functional theory (DFT) calculations including a Hubbard $U$ term. An unanticipated Jahn-Teller distortion with $d_{z^2}$ orbital polarization and a FM Mott insulating (and multiferroic) phase emerges in the double perovskite (1/1), that shows strong susceptibility to strain-controlled orbital engineering. The LaNiO$_3$ bilayer with graphene topology has a switchable multiferroic (ferromagnetic (FM) and ferroelectric) insulating ground…
Understanding Mott insulators and charge density waves (CDW) is critical for both fundamental physics and future device applications. However, the relationship between these two phenomena remains unclear, particularly in systems close to two-dimensional (2D) limit. In this study, we utilize scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy to investigate monolayer 1T-NbSe2 to elucidate the energy of the Mott upper Hubbard band (UHB), and reveal that the spin-polarized UHB is spatially distributed away from the dz2 orbital at the center of the CDW unit. Moreover, the UHB shows a root3 x root3 R30° per…
In the field of condensed matter, the quest to obtain an experimental realization of a Kondo lattice has generated a tremendous effort of the community, from both standpoints of experiments and theory. The pursuit of obtaining independent magnetic moments, via charge localization through Coulomb interactions, is paramount for applications in nanotechnology. In particular, systems with simultaneous charge and spin degrees of freedom can manifest both Kondo spin quenching and Mott-Hubbard charge localization. A unified experimental framework illuminating the pathway between the two phenomena is …
We address the effective tight-binding Hamiltonian that describes the insulating Mott state of twisted graphene bilayers at a magic angle. In that configuration, twisted bilayers form a honeycomb superlattice of localized states, characterized by the appearance of flat bands with four-fold degeneracy. After calculating the maximally localized superlattice Wannier wavefunctions, we derive the effective spin model that describes the Mott state. We suggest that the system is an exotic ferromagnetic Mott insulator, with well defined experimental signatures.
The moiré superlattice formed by ABC stacked trilayer graphene aligned with a hexagonal boron nitride substrate (TG/h-BN) provides an interesting system where both the bandwidth and the topology can be tuned by an applied perpendicular electric field $D$ . Thus the TG/h-BN system can simulate both Hubbard model physics and nearly flat Chern band physics within one sample. We derive lattice models for both signs of $D$ (which controls the band topology) separately through explicit Wannier orbital construction and mapping of Coulomb interaction. When the bands are topologically trivial, we discu…
The interacting bosons in one-dimensional inversion-symmetric superlattices are investigated from the topological aspect. The complete phase diagram is obtained by an atomic-limit analysis and quantum Monte Carlo simulations and comprises three kinds of phases: superfluid, persisted charge-density-wave and Mott insulators, and emergent insulators in the presence of nearest-neighbor hoppings. We find that all emergent insulators are topological, which are characterized by the Berry phase $π$ and a pair of degenerate in-gap boundary states. The mechanism of the topological bosonic insulators is …
Comment on the paper "Absence of the Mott Glass Phase in 1D Disordered Fermionic Systems" by T. Nattermann, A. Petkovic, Z. Ristivojevic, and F. Schutze, Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 186402 (2007).
An exotic phase, the bond order wave, characterized by the spontaneous dimerization of the hopping, has been predicted to exist sandwiched between the band and Mott insulators in systems described by the ionic Hubbard model. Despite growing theoretical evidences, this phase still evades experimental detection. Given the recent realization of the ionic Hubbard model in ultracold atomic gases, we propose here to detect the bond order wave using superlattice modulation spectroscopy. We demonstrate, with the help of time-dependent density-matrix renormalization group and bosonization, that this sp…
We study a class of SU(N) Heisenberg models, describing Mott insulators of fermionic ultra-cold alkaline earth atoms on the three-dimensional simple cubic lattice. Based on an earlier semiclassical analysis, magnetic order is unlikely, and we focus instead on a solvable large-N limit designed to address the competition among non-magnetic ground states. We find a rich phase diagram as a function of the filling parameter k, composed of a variety of ground states spontaneously breaking lattice symmetries, and in some cases also time reversal symmetry. One particularly striking example is a state …
We theoretically investigate topological properties of the one-dimensional superlattice anyon-Hubbard model, which can be mapped to a superlattice bose-Hubbard model with an occupation-dependent phase factor by fractional Jordan-Wigner transformation. The topological anyon-Mott insulator is identified by topological invariant and edge modes using exact diagonalization and density-matrix renormalization-group algorithm. When only the statistical angle is varied and all other parameters are fixed, a statistically induced topological phase transition can be realized, which provides new insights i…
Here we present polarized neutron reflectometry measurements exploring thin film heterostructures comprised of a strongly correlated Mott state, GdTiO$_3$, embedded with SrTiO$_3$ quantum wells. Our results reveal that the net ferromagnetism inherent to the Mott GdTiO$_3$ matrix propagates into the nominally nonmagnetic SrTiO$_3$ quantum wells and tracks the magnetic order parameter of the host Mott insulating matrix. Beyond a well thickness of 5 SrO layers, the magnetic moment within the wells is dramatically suppressed, suggesting that quenched well magnetism comprises the likely origin of q…
We study theoretically the Mott metal-insulator transition for a system of fermionic atoms confined in a three-dimensional optical lattice and a harmonic trap. We describe an inhomogeneous system of several thousand sites using an adaptation of dynamical mean field theory solved efficiently with the numerical renormalization group method. Above a critical value of the on-site interaction, a Mott-insulating phase appears in the system. We investigate signatures of the Mott phase in the density profile and in time-of-flight experiments.
We report the nanoscale conductivity imaging of correlated electronic states in angle-aligned WSe2/WS2 heterostructures using microwave impedance microscopy. The noncontact microwave probe allows us to observe the Mott insulating state with one hole per moiré unit cell that persists for temperatures up to 150 K, consistent with other characterization techniques. In addition, we identify for the first time a Mott insulating state at one electron per moiré unit cell. Appreciable inhomogeneity of the correlated states is directly visualized in the hetero-bilayer region, indicative of local disord…
Motivated by the realization of spin-valley Hubbard on triangular moiré superlattice in ABC trilayer graphene aligned with hexagon boron nitride (hBN) and possibly also in twisted transition metal dichalcogenide homobilayers, we study possible Mott insulating phases and pseudogap metals based on symmetry constraint and parton mean field theories. First we show that Luttinger constraint allows two distinct symmetric and featureless Fermi liquids when there is an inter-valley Hund's term breaking $SU(4)$ spin rotation. Especially, there exists a symmetric and featureless "pseudogap metal" with s…
We investigate the effect of mass imbalance in binary Fermi mixtures loaded in optical lattices. Using dynamical mean-field theory, we study the transition from a fluid to a Mott insulator driven by the repulsive interactions. For almost every value of the parameters we find that the light species with smaller bare mass is more affected by correlations than the heavy one, so that their effective masses become closer than their bare masses before a Mott transition occurs. The strength of the critical repulsion decreases monotonically as the mass imbalance grows so that the minimum is realized w…
The variational cluster approximation is used to study the ground-state properties and single-particle spectra of the three-component fermionic Hubbard model defined on the two-dimensional square lattice at half filling. First, we show that either a paired Mott state or color-selective Mott state is realized in the paramagnetic system, depending on the anisotropy in the interaction strengths, except around the SU(3) symmetric point, where a paramagnetic metallic state is maintained. Then, by introducing Weiss fields to observe spontaneous symmetry breakings, we show that either a color-density…
Understanding the mechanism of high temperature (high Tc) superconductivity is a central problem in condensed matter physics. It is often speculated that high Tc superconductivity arises from a doped Mott insulator as described by the Hubbard model. An exact solution of the Hubbard model, however, is extremely challenging due to the strong electron-electron correlation. Therefore, it is highly desirable to experimentally study a model Hubbard system in which the unconventional superconductivity can be continuously tuned by varying the Hubbard parameters. Here we report signatures of tunable su…
We report on the site-resolved observation of characteristic states of the two-dimensional repulsive Fermi-Hubbard model, using ultracold $^{40}$K atoms in an optical lattice. By varying the tunneling, interaction strength, and external confinement, we realize metallic, Mott-insulating, and band-insulating states. We directly measure the local moment, which quantifies the degree of on-site magnetization, as a function of temperature and chemical potential. Entropies per particle as low as $0.99(6)\,k_B$ indicate that nearest-neighbor antiferromagnetic correlations should be detectable using sp…
Ab initio calculations are used to predict that a superlattice composed of layers of LaTiO3 and LaNiO3 alternating along the [001] direction is a S=1 Mott insulator with large magnetic moments on the Ni sites, negligible moments on the Ti sites and a charge transfer gap set by the energy difference between Ni d and Ti d states, distinct from conventional Mott insulators. Correlation effects are enhanced on the Ni sites via filling the oxygen p states and reducing the Ni-O-Ni bond angle. Small hole (electron) doping of the superlattice leads to a two-dimensional single-band situation with holes…
We perform a theoretical study of a fermionic gas with two hyperfine states confined to an optical lattice. We derive a generic state diagram as a function of interaction strength, particle number, and confining potential. We discuss the central density, the double occupancy and their derivatives as probes for the Mott state, connecting our findings to the recent experiment of Jördens et al. Using entropic arguments we compare two different strategies to reach the antiferromagnetic state in the presence of a trapping potential.
Non-equilibrium quantum phenomena are ubiquitous in nature. Yet, theoretical predictions on the real-time dynamics of many-body quantum systems remain formidably challenging, especially for high dimensions, strong interactions or disordered samples. Here we consider a notable paradigm of strongly correlated Fermi systems, the Mott phase of the Hubbard model, in a setup resembling ultracold-gases experiments. We study the three-dimensional expansion of a cloud into an optical lattice after removing the confining potential. We use time-dependent density-functional theory combined with dynamical …
We study analytically and with the numerical time-evolving block decimation method the dynamics of an impurity in a bath of spinless fermions with nearest-neighbor interactions in a one-dimensional lattice. The bath is in a Mott insulator state with alternating sites occupied and the impurity interacts with the bath by repulsive on-site interactions. We find that when the magnitudes of the on-site and nearest-neighbor interactions are close to each other, the system shows excitations of two qualitatively distinct types. For the first type, a domain wall and an anti-domain wall of density propa…
We investigate the continuous variation of electronic states from a Fermi liquid to a quantum spin liquid induced by chemical substitution in the organic dimer-Mott system of $κ$-[(BEDSe-TTF)$_x$(BEDT-TTF)$_{1-x}$]$_2$Cu[N(CN)$_2$]Br. Electrical transport measurements reveal that the mixing of BEDSe-TTF into the BEDT-TTF layers induces a quantum Mott transition around $x$=0.10. Although a charge gap disappears at this point, magnetic susceptibility and heat capacity measurements indicate that fermionic low-energy excitations remain in the insulating salts, suggesting that fermionic spin excita…
We examine the electronic properties of newly discovered "ferroelectric" metal LiOsO$_3$ combining density-functional and dynamical mean-field theories. We show that the material is close to a Mott transition and that electronic correlations can be tuned to engineer a Mott multiferroic state in 1/1 superlattice of LiOsO$_3$ and LiNbO$_3$. We use electronic structure calculations to predict that the (LiOsO$_3$)$_1$/(LiNbO$_3$)$_1$ superlattice is a type-I multiferroic material with a ferrolectric polarization of 41.2~$μ$C cm$^{-2}$, Curie temperature of 927\,K, and Néel temperature of 671\,K. O…
We study the competition between a random potential and a commensurate potential on interacting fermionic and bosonic systems using a variety of methods. We focus on one dimensional interacting fermionic systems but higher dimensional bosonic and fermionic extensions, as well as classical equivalents are also discussed. Our methods which include bosonization, replica variational method, functional renormalization group (RG) and perturbation around the atomic limit, go beyond conventional perturbative expansions around the Luttinger liquid in one dimension. All these methods agree on the predic…
We show that a new state of matter, the d-wave Mott-insulator state (d-Mott state) (introduced recently by [H. Yao, W. F. Tsai, and S. A. Kivelson, Phys. Rev. B 76, 161104 (2007)]), which is characterized by a non-zero expectation value of a local plaquette operator embedded in an insulating state, can be engineered using ultra-cold atomic fermions in two-dimensional double-well optical lattices. We characterize and analyze the parameter regime where the $d$-Mott state is stable. We predict the testable signatures of the state in the time-of-flight measurements.
The Mott critical point between a metal and a correlated insulator has usually been studied via density or spin density bosonic mode fluctuations according to the standard Ginzburg-Landau-Wilson phase transition paradigm. A moment's reflection leads to increasing doubts that such an approach should work as the transition is nonmagnetic, voiding the relevance of spin density modes. Charge density modes are irrelevelant since the long range Coulomb interaction leads to a large plasmon gap and their incompressibility. In solidarity with these doubts, recent measurements of the Mott critical point…
We study various Mott insulating phases of interacting spin-3/2 fermionic ultracold atoms in two-dimensional square optical lattices at half filling. Using a generalized one-band Hubbard model with hidden SO(5) symmetry, we identify two distinct symmetry breaking phases: the degenerate antiferromagnetic spin-dipole/spin-octupole ordering and spin-quadrupole ordering, depending on the sign of the spin-dependent interaction. These two competing orders exhibit very different symmetry properties, low energy excitations and topological characterizations. Near the SU(4) symmetric point, a quantum cr…
We study the double occupancy in a fermionic Mott insulator at half-filling generated via a dynamical periodic modulation of the hopping amplitude. Tuning the modulation amplitude, we describe a crossover in the nature of doublon-holon excitations from a Fermi Golden Rule regime to damped Rabi oscillations. The decay time of excited states diverges at a critical modulation strength, signaling the transition to a dynamically bound non-equilibrium state of doublon-holon pairs. A setup using a fermionic quantum gas should allow to study the critical exponents.
We calculate the rate of creation of double occupancies in a 3D Fermionic Mott insulator near half-filling by modulation of optical lattice potential. At high temperatures, incoherent holes lead to a broad response peaked at the Hubbard repulsion $U$. At low temperatures, antiferromagnetic order leads to a coherent peak for the hole along with broad features representing spin wave shake-off processes. This is manifested in the doublon creation rate as a sharp absorption edge and oscillations as a function of modulating frequency. Thus, modulation spectroscopy can be used as a probe of antiferr…
The zero-temperature phase diagram of $p$-orbital two-component fermionic system loaded into a one-dimensional optical lattice is mapped out by means of analytical and numerical techniques. It is shown that the $p$-band model away from half-filling hosts various competing superconducting phases for attractive and repulsive interactions. At quarter filling, we analyze the possible formation of incompressible Mott phases and in particular for repulsive interactions, we find the occurrence of a Mott transition with the formation of fully gapped bond-ordering waves.
Hall and optical conductivity experiments on the cuprates indicate that the low-energy fermionic degrees of freedom in a doped Mott insulator posess a component that is dynamcially generated and hence determined by the temperature. We show explicitly how the spectrum in the lower Hubbard band should be partitioned to describe such dynamically generated charge degrees of freedom and corroborate this picture with the results from the exact low-energy theory of the Hubbard model. A consequence of such dynamics is that the Landau one-to-one correspondence between bare electrons and the effective f…
Finite-${\mathbf Q}$ magnetic instabilities are rather common in frustrated magnets. When the magnetic susceptibility is maximized at multiple-${\mathbf Q}$ vectors related through lattice symmetry operations, exotic magnetic orderings such as vortex and skyrmion crystals may follow. Here we show that a periodic array of nonmagnetic impurities, which can be realized through charge density wave ordering, leads to a rich phase diagram featuring a plethora of chiral magnetic phases, especially when there is a simple relation between the reciprocal vectors of the impurity superlattice and the magn…
Transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) bilayers have recently emerged as a robust and tunable moiré system for studying and designing correlated electron physics. In this work, by combining large-scale first principle calculation and continuum model approach, we provide an electronic structure theory that maps long-period heterobilayer TMD superlattices onto diatomic crystals with cations and anions. We find that the interplay between moiré potential and Coulomb interaction leads to filling-dependent charge transfer between MM and MX regions several nanometers apart. We show that the insulating…
In a solid material strong interactions between the electrons can lead to surprising properties. A prime example is the Mott insulator, where the suppression of conductivity is a result of interactions and not the consequence of a filled Bloch band. The proximity to the Mott insulating phase in fermionic systems is the origin for many intriguing phenomena in condensed matter physics, most notably high-temperature superconductivity. Therefore it is highly desirable to use the novel experimental tools developed in atomic physics to access this regime. Indeed, the Hubbard model, which encompasses…
We study the time-dependent dynamical properties of two-component ultracold fermions in a one-dimensional optical superlattice by applying the adaptive time-dependent density matrix renormalization group to a repulsive Hubbard model with an alternating superlattice potential. We clarify how the time evolution of local quantities occurs when the superlattice potential is suddenly changed to a normal one. For a Mott-type insulating state at quarter filling, the time evolution exhibits a profile similar to that expected for bosonic atoms, where correlation effects are less important. On the other…
Manipulating the orbital state in a strongly correlated electron system is of fundamental and technological importance for exploring and developing novel electronic phases. Here, we report an unambiguous demonstration of orbital occupancy control between t2g and eg multiplets in quasi-twodimensional transition metal oxide superlattices (SLs) composed of a Mott insulator LaCoO3 and a band insulator LaAlO3. As the LaCoO3 sublayer thickness approaches its fundamental limit (i.e. one unit-cell-thick), the electronic state of the SLs changed from a Mott insulator, in which both t2g and eg orbitals …
We study transitions between topological phases featuring emergent fractionalized excitations in two-dimensional models for Mott insulators with spin and orbital degrees of freedom. The models realize fermionic quantum critical points in fractionalized Gross-Neveu$^\ast$ universality classes in (2+1) dimensions. They are characterized by the same set of critical exponents as their ordinary Gross-Neveu counterparts, but feature a different energy spectrum, reflecting the nontrivial topology of the adjacent phases. We exemplify this in a square-lattice model, for which an exact mapping to a $t$-…
Metal-insulator transitions are studied within a three-component Falicov-Kimball model which mimics a mixture of one-component and two-component fermionic particles with local repulsive interactions in optical lattices. Within the model the two-component fermionic particles are able to hop in the lattice, while the one-component fermionic particles are localized. The model is studied by using the dynamical mean-field theory with exact diagonalization. Its homogeneous solutions establish Mott transitions for both commensurate and incommensurate fillings between one third and two thirds. At comm…
A series of epitaxial (LaVO3)6m(SrVO3)m superlattices having the same nominal composition as La6/7Sr1/7VO3, a Mott-Hubbard insulator, were grown with pulsed-laser deposition on [001]-oriented SrTiO3 substrates, and their superlattice period was varied. When m=1, the insulating resistivity of bulk-like La6/7Sr1/7VO3 is obtained; however, an increase in the periodicity (m>=2) results in metallic samples. Comparison of the superlattice periodicity with the coherence length of charge carriers in perovskite oxide heterostructures are used to understand these observations. A filling-controlled insul…
We report on the fabrication of all perovskite Mott insulator/band insulator YTiO3/CaTiO3 superlattices by pulsed laser deposition. The combination of in situ reflection high energy electron diffraction, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray reflectivity confirms the high quality of the films grown in a layer-by-layer mode. Electrical transport measurements reveal that a non-SrTiO3 based two dimensional electron gas system has formed at the YTiO3/CaTiO3 interface. These studies offer another route in the pursuit of complex oxide two-dimensional electron gas systems, which allows to obtain greater insig…
We study transport properties of the half-filled two-dimensional (2D) Hubbard model with spatially varying interactions, where a pattern of interacting and non-interacting sites is formed. We use Determinantal Quantum Monte Carlo method to calculate the double occupation, effective hopping and Drude weight. These data point to two phase transitions, driven by fermionic correlations. The first is the expected metal to a Mott insulating state. The second one, is an exotic transition from a Mott insulating state to a highly anisotropic metal, that takes place at large values of the fermion-fermio…
Recent experiments on quantum degenerate gases give an opportunity for simulating strongly-correlated electronic systems in optical lattices. It may shed light on some long-standing puzzles in condensed-matter physics, like the nature of high-temperature superconductivity in cuprates that had baffled people over two decades. It is believed that the two-dimensional fermionic Hubbard model, or t-J model, contains the key to this problem; but the difficulty of unveiling the mystery of a strongly-interacting fermionic system is also generally acknowledged. Here, as a substitute, we systematically …
