Correlation driven metal insulator transition as a function of thickness in SrRuO3 thin films

ORAL

Abstract

Recently there has been debate on the existence of a fundamental thickness limit of a metallic ground state of SrRuO3 thin films and what mechanism drives the system to an insulating state at low thicknesses should there be a transition. We present further evidence that a fundamental thickness level does indeed exist and that the metal-to-insulator transition is in fact a transition from a conducting ferromagnetic state to an insulating anti-ferromagnetic state that occurs from 3 to 4 unit cell layers of SrRuO3. We show this in two steps, in the first step we do Density Functional calculations on SrRuO3 that show a ferromagnetic -- anti-ferromagnetic phase transition occurring in SrRuO3 at large values of the electron correlation correlation U. In the second step we use ruthenium 3d x-ray photoemission spectra obtained in situ to demonstrate that U increases for very thin films of SrRuO3, driving the metal-to-insulator transition.

*Netherlands organization for Scientific Research NWO and FOM

–

Authors

  • Gert Koster

    • MESA+ institute for nanotechnology, University of Twente, The Netherlands
    • MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, The Netherlands

  • Jeroen Blok

    • MESA+ institute for nanotechnology, University of Twente, The Netherlands

  • Wolter Siemons

    • UC Berkeley - Dep. of Physics
    • MESA+ institute for nanotechnology, University of Twente, The Netherlands
    • MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, The Netherlands

  • Zhicheng Zhong

    • MESA+ institute for nanotechnology, University of Twente, The Netherlands

  • Paul Kelly

    • MESA+ institute for nanotechnology, University of Twente, The Netherlands

  • Guus Rijnders

    • MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology/University of Twente
    • MESA+ institute for nanotechnology, University of Twente, The Netherlands

  • Dave Blank

    • MESA+ institute for nanotechnology, University of Twente, The Netherlands
    • MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, The Netherlands