Perspective—Emergent Phases in Rare Earth Nickelate Heterostructure

Abstract

The prediction of high Tc superconductivity in layers of LaNiO3 through orbital engineering has led to extensive research efforts over the last fifteen years. During this period, a plethora of thin film and heterostructure based rare-earth nickelate families with perovskite structure have been synthesized and explored. In this short perspective, we briefly review the complexity of bulk RENiO3, spotlighting several recent findings of emergent phenomena in heterostructures containing the interface between RENiO3 and another transition metal oxide. Finally, we outline potentially interesting future directions linked to time-domain dynamics to harness new Mott and topological phases in artificial structures of RENiO3.

From Fundamentals to Next-Generation Technology - JES/JSS Focus Issue In Honor of John Goodenough: A Centenarian Milestone

“…Magnetic phase changes are also discussed by Huang et al 10 who examine the electronic phase diagram of the triangular lattice antiferromagnetic Ca 3 MNb 2 O 9 (M = Co, Ni) compound. Schemes for tuning topological effects in the MnBi 2 Te 4 compound are presented by Yan, 11 while Chakhalian and Middey 12 and Lokshin et al 13 discuss the complexity of effects arising from details of orbital occupancy in rare-earth nickelates in comparison with cuprates. Shimakawa and coauthors 14 examine the effects of cation size on the oxygen stoichiometry and iron valance states in the alkaline earth-based iron compound AFe 3-δ .…”

Hole doping in a negative charge transfer insulator

“…In this work, we consider rare-earth nickelates RENiO 3 (RE = Pr, Nd, Sm, .. Lu, etc.) [7][8][9][10][11] , which are found to belong to this negative Δ regime 4,12 and exhibit temperature driven simultaneous electronic and structural transitions. A magnetic transition also appears at the same temperature in NdNiO 3 and PrNiO 3 .…”

“…Suppression/disentanglement of the MIT has been examined recently in order to understand the origin of the simultaneous transitions of RENiO 3 9,11,17,[21][22][23][24][25] . Hole doping is another way to suppress the antiferromagnetic, insulating phase of RENiO 3 [26][27][28] .…”