Coupled Nonpolar-Polar Metal-Insulator Transition in 11 SrCrO3/SrTiO3 Superlattices: A First-Principles Study

Yuanjun Zhou and Karin M. Rabe
Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 106401 – Published 31 August 2015
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Abstract

Using first-principles calculations, we determined the epitaxial-strain dependence of the ground state of the 11 SrCrO3/SrTiO3 superlattice. The superlattice layering leads to significant changes in the electronic states near the Fermi level, derived from Cr t2g orbitals. An insulating phase is found when the tensile strain is greater than 2.2% relative to unstrained cubic SrTiO3. The insulating character is shown to arise from Cr t2g orbital ordering, which is produced by an in-plane polar distortion that couples to the superlattice d bands and is stabilized by epitaxial strain. This effect can be used to engineer the band structure near the Fermi level in transition metal oxide superlattices.

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  • Received 8 March 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.106401

© 2015 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Yuanjun Zhou and Karin M. Rabe

  • Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA

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Issue

Vol. 115, Iss. 10 — 4 September 2015

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