Probing spin correlations using angle resolved photoemission in the coupled metallic/Mott insulator system PdCrO<sub>2</sub>

 · Invited

Abstract

A nearly free electron metal and a Mott insulating state can be thought of as opposite ends of the range of possibilities for the motion of electrons in a solid. In the magnetic oxide metal PdCrO2, these two coexist as alternating layers. Using angle resolved photoemission, we surprisingly find sharp band-like features in the one-electron removal spectral function of the correlated subsystem. We show that these arise because a hole created in the Mott layer moves to and propagates in the metallic layer while retaining memory of the Mott layer’s magnetism. This picture is quantitatively supported by a strong coupling analysis capturing the physics of PdCrO2 in terms of a Kondo lattice Hamiltonian. Our findings open new routes to use the non-magnetic probe of photoemission to gain insights into the spin-susceptibility of correlated electron systems.

*We acknowledge support from the European Research Council (tGrant Nos. ERC-714193-QUESTDO and ERC-319286-QMAC), the Royal Society, the Leverhulme Trust (Grant Nos. RL-2016-006 and PLP-2015-144R), the Max-Planck Society and the International Max-Planck Partnership for Measurement and Observation at the Quantum Limit. We acknowledge PhD studentship support from EPSRC (grant numbers EP/L015110/1 and EP/K503162), and the IMPRS for the Chemistry and Physics of Quantum Materials. We thank Diamond Light Source for access to beamlines I09 (Proposal No. SI19479) and I05 (Proposal No. SI17699), which contributed to the results presented here.

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Presenters

  • Veronika Sunko

    • Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids
    • School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St. Andrews KY16 9SS, United Kingdom

Authors

  • Veronika Sunko

    • Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids
    • School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St. Andrews KY16 9SS, United Kingdom

  • Federico Mazzola

    • University of St Andrews
    • School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St. Andrews KY16 9SS, United Kingdom

  • Sota Kitamura

    • Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems

  • Seunghyun Khim

    • Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids
    • Max-Planck-Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids
    • Chemical Physics of Solids, Max Planck Institute, Dresden, Germany
    • Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Dresden, Germany
    • Physics of Quantum Materials, Max Planck Institute of Chemical Physics of Solids
    • MPI for Chemical Physics of Solids, Dresden, Germany

  • Pallavi Kushwaha

    • Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids
    • Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Dresden, Germany

  • Oliver J Clark

    • University of St Andrews
    • School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St. Andrews KY16 9SS, United Kingdom

  • Matthew Watson

    • University of St Andrews
    • School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St. Andrews
    • Diamond Light Source
    • School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St. Andrews KY16 9SS, United Kingdom

  • Igor Marković

    • University of St Andrews
    • School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, UK
    • School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St. Andrews KY16 9SS, United Kingdom

  • Deepnarayan Biswas

    • University of St Andrews

  • Leonid Pourovskii

    • Collège de France
    • Centre de Physique Théorique, Ecole Polytechnique

  • Timur Kim

    • Diamond Light Source
    • Diamond Light Source, Harwell Campus, Didcot, OX11 0DE, United Kingdom

  • Tien-Lin Lee

    • Diamond Light Source
    • Diamond Light Source, UK

  • Pardeep K. Thakur

    • Diamond Light Source

  • Helge Rosner

    • Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids

  • Antoine Georges

    • Collège de France
    • College de France
    • CCQ, Flatiron Institute, Simons Foundation
    • Center for Computational Quantum Physics, Flatiron Institue
    • Flatiron Institute - Simons Foundation, New York, USA
    • Center for Computational Quantum Physics, Flatiron Institute, NY, NY, 10010
    • CCQ, Flatiron Institute
    • Center for Computational Quantum Physics, Flatiron Institute

  • Roderich Moessner

    • Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems
    • MPIPKS Dresden
    • MPIpks, Max Planck Institut
    • Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden
    • Max-Planck-Institut fur Physik komplexer Systeme
    • MPI-PkS Dresden
    • Max-Planck-Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, 01187 Dresden, Germany

  • Takashi Oka

    • Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems

  • Andrew P. Mackenzie

    • Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids
    • Chemical Physics of Solids, Max Planck Institute, Dresden, Germany

  • Phil D C King

    • University of St Andrews