Epitaxial strain provides important pathways to control the magnetic and electronic states in transition metal oxides. However, the large strain is usually accompanied by a strong reduction of the oxygen vacancy formation energy, which hinders the direct manipulation of their intrinsic properties. Here using a post-deposition ozone annealing method, we obtained a series of oxygen stoichiometric SrCoO3 thin films with the tensile strain up to 3.0%. We observed a robust ferromagnetic ground state in all strained thin films, while interestingly the tensile strain triggers a distinct metal to insulator transition along with the increase of the tensile strain. The persistent ferromagnetic state across the electrical transition therefore suggests that the magnetic state is directly correlated with the localized electrons, rather than the itinerant ones, which then calls for further investigation of the intrinsic mechanism of this magnetic compound beyond the double-exchange mechanism.
Manipulating the strain induced poly-domains and phase transition in correlated oxide material are important for high performance devices fabrication. Though the electronic transport in the strained oxide film at macroscopic scales can be directly measured, the anisotropic electronic state and the controllable phase separation cross the insulator-to-metal transition within nanoscale size are still elusive. Here, we selected VO2 crystal film as a prototypical oxide and achieved the manipulation of anisotropy electronic phase separation via injecting He+ nanobeam into VO2 film at room temperatur…
Ferromagnetic insulators play a crucial role in the development of low-dissipation quantum magnetic devices for spintronics. Epitaxial LaCoO3 thin film is a prominent ferromagnetic insulator, in which the robust ferromagnetic ordering emerges owing to epitaxial strain. Whereas it is evident that strong spin-lattice coupling induces ferromagnetism, the reported ferromagnetic properties of epitaxially strained LaCoO3 thin films were highly consistent. For example, even under largely modulated degree of strain, the reported Curie temperatures of epitaxially strained LaCoO3 thin films lie within 8…
Lattice structure can dictate electronic and magnetic properties of a material. Especially, reconstruction at a surface or heterointerface can create properties that are fundamentally different from those of the corresponding bulk material. We have investigated the lattice structure on the surface and in the thin films of epitaxial SrRuO3 with the film thickness up to 22 pseudo-cubic unit cells (u.c.), using the combination of surface sensitive low energy electron diffraction and bulk sensitive scanning transmission electron microscopy. Our analysis indicates that, in contrast to many perovski…
At ambient pressure, bulk SrCoO$_{3}$ is a ferromagnetic (FM) metal in cubic perovskite structure. By contrast, magnetic properties of epitaxial SrCoO$_{3}$ thin films, especially at high tensile strain ($\varepsilon \gtrsim 3$\%), remain unclear: Previous calculations had predicted antiferromagnetic (AFM) states more energetically favorable in this regime, but recent experiments indicated a FM insulating state. In this work, using first-principles calculations, we perform an extensive search for the structural, spin, magnetic, and orbital states of SrCoO$_{3}$ thin films. Our calculations ind…
Oxygen packaging in transition metal oxides determines the metal-oxygen hybridization and electronic occupation at metal orbitals. Strontium vanadate (SrVO$_3$), having a single electron in a $3d$ orbital, is thought to be the simplest example of strongly correlated metallic oxides. Here, we determine the effects of epitaxial strain on the electronic properties of SrVO$_3$ thin films, where the metal-oxide sublattice is corner-connected. Using x-ray absorption and x-ray linear dichroism at the V $L_{2,3}$ and O $K$-edges, it is observed that tensile or compressive epitaxial strain change the h…
Interacting Majorana fermions in strained nodal superconductors
朗道能级（LL）已被预测出现在狄拉克节点下施加非均匀应变的系统。本文研究了二维$d_{xy}$单线态（2D-S）和三维$p \pm i p$等自旋三线态（3D-T）超导体。我们证明了spinful马约拉纳性质的散装无间隙零-LLS。沿一定方向的应变可以在体相中诱导两个拓扑结构不同的相，第零个LLs位于界面处。这些模式是不稳定的铁磁性的2D-S的情况下。3D-T中出现的实空间马约拉纳费米子允许更多奇异的可能性。
Reversible tuning of magnetic order and intrinsic superconductivity in strained FeTe films via stoichiometry control
Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences（北京量子信息科学研究院）；Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院物理研究所）；University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学）；Renmin University of China（中国人民大学）；Shanxi Normal University（山西师范大学）；Tsinghua University（清华大学）
Jahn-Teller distortion on strained La$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$ thin films
Kavli Institute for Theoretical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学卡尔文理论科学研究所）；Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics and Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院物理研究所北京凝聚态物理国家研究中心）；School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学物理科学学院）
