Avoided metallicity in a hole-doped Mott insulator on a triangular lattice

Chi Ming Yim; Gesa-R Siemann; Srdjan Stavrić; Seunghyun Khim; Izidor Benedičič; Philip A. E. Murgatroyd; Tommaso Antonelli; Matthew D. Watson; Andrew P. Mackenzie; Silvia Picozzi; Phil D. C. King; Peter Wahl

doi:10.1038/S41467-024-52007-Z

Avoided metallicity in a hole-doped Mott insulator on a triangular lattice

Chi Ming Yim, Gesa-R Siemann, Srdjan Stavrić, Seunghyun Khim, Izidor Benedičič, Philip A. E. Murgatroyd, Tommaso Antonelli, Matthew D. Watson, Andrew P. Mackenzie, Silvia Picozzi^*, Phil D. C. King^*, Peter Wahl^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Doping of a Mott insulator gives rise to a wide variety of exotic emergent states, from high-temperature superconductivity to charge, spin, and orbital orders. The physics underpinning their evolution is, however, poorly understood. A major challenge is the chemical complexity associated with traditional routes to doping. Here, we study the Mott insulating CrO2 layer of the delafossite PdCrO2, where an intrinsic polar catastrophe provides a clean route to doping of the surface. From scanning tunnelling microscopy and angle-resolved photoemission, we find that the surface stays insulating accompanied by a short-range ordered state. From density functional theory, we demonstrate how the formation of charge disproportionation results in an insulating ground state of the surface that is disparate from the hidden Mott insulator in the bulk. We demonstrate that voltage pulses induce local modifications to this state which relax over tens of minutes, pointing to a glassy nature of the charge order.

Original language	English
Article number	8098
Number of pages	8
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	15
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/S41467-024-52007-Z
Publication status	Published - 16 Sept 2024

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@article{f4bfcbc574ac4d1fa901b2822f77787f,

title = "Avoided metallicity in a hole-doped Mott insulator on a triangular lattice",

abstract = "Doping of a Mott insulator gives rise to a wide variety of exotic emergent states, from high-temperature superconductivity to charge, spin, and orbital orders. The physics underpinning their evolution is, however, poorly understood. A major challenge is the chemical complexity associated with traditional routes to doping. Here, we study the Mott insulating CrO2 layer of the delafossite PdCrO2, where an intrinsic polar catastrophe provides a clean route to doping of the surface. From scanning tunnelling microscopy and angle-resolved photoemission, we find that the surface stays insulating accompanied by a short-range ordered state. From density functional theory, we demonstrate how the formation of charge disproportionation results in an insulating ground state of the surface that is disparate from the hidden Mott insulator in the bulk. We demonstrate that voltage pulses induce local modifications to this state which relax over tens of minutes, pointing to a glassy nature of the charge order.",

author = "Yim, \{Chi Ming\} and Gesa-R Siemann and Srdjan Stavri{\'c} and Seunghyun Khim and Izidor Benedi{\v c}i{\v c} and Murgatroyd, \{Philip A. E.\} and Tommaso Antonelli and Watson, \{Matthew D.\} and Mackenzie, \{Andrew P.\} and Silvia Picozzi and King, \{Phil D. C.\} and Peter Wahl",

note = "Funding: We gratefully acknowledge support from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (Grant Nos. EP/S005005/1 and EP/T02108X/1), the European Research Council (through the QUESTDO project, 714193), the Leverhulme Trust (Grant No. RL-2016-006), the Royal Society through the International Exchange grant IEC\textbackslash{}R2\textbackslash{}222041 and the Italian Ministry of Research through the PRIN-2022 “SORBET” project No.2022ZY8HJY. C.M.Y. acknowledges support from Shanghai Pujiang Talent Program 21PJ1405400 and TDLI Start-up Fund.",

year = "2024",

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day = "16",

doi = "10.1038/S41467-024-52007-Z",

language = "English",

volume = "15",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Avoided metallicity in a hole-doped Mott insulator on a triangular lattice

AU - Yim, Chi Ming

AU - Siemann, Gesa-R

AU - Stavrić, Srdjan

AU - Khim, Seunghyun

AU - Benedičič, Izidor

AU - Murgatroyd, Philip A. E.

AU - Antonelli, Tommaso

AU - Watson, Matthew D.

AU - Mackenzie, Andrew P.

AU - Picozzi, Silvia

AU - King, Phil D. C.

AU - Wahl, Peter

N1 - Funding: We gratefully acknowledge support from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (Grant Nos. EP/S005005/1 and EP/T02108X/1), the European Research Council (through the QUESTDO project, 714193), the Leverhulme Trust (Grant No. RL-2016-006), the Royal Society through the International Exchange grant IEC\R2\222041 and the Italian Ministry of Research through the PRIN-2022 “SORBET” project No.2022ZY8HJY. C.M.Y. acknowledges support from Shanghai Pujiang Talent Program 21PJ1405400 and TDLI Start-up Fund.

PY - 2024/9/16

Y1 - 2024/9/16

N2 - Doping of a Mott insulator gives rise to a wide variety of exotic emergent states, from high-temperature superconductivity to charge, spin, and orbital orders. The physics underpinning their evolution is, however, poorly understood. A major challenge is the chemical complexity associated with traditional routes to doping. Here, we study the Mott insulating CrO2 layer of the delafossite PdCrO2, where an intrinsic polar catastrophe provides a clean route to doping of the surface. From scanning tunnelling microscopy and angle-resolved photoemission, we find that the surface stays insulating accompanied by a short-range ordered state. From density functional theory, we demonstrate how the formation of charge disproportionation results in an insulating ground state of the surface that is disparate from the hidden Mott insulator in the bulk. We demonstrate that voltage pulses induce local modifications to this state which relax over tens of minutes, pointing to a glassy nature of the charge order.

AB - Doping of a Mott insulator gives rise to a wide variety of exotic emergent states, from high-temperature superconductivity to charge, spin, and orbital orders. The physics underpinning their evolution is, however, poorly understood. A major challenge is the chemical complexity associated with traditional routes to doping. Here, we study the Mott insulating CrO2 layer of the delafossite PdCrO2, where an intrinsic polar catastrophe provides a clean route to doping of the surface. From scanning tunnelling microscopy and angle-resolved photoemission, we find that the surface stays insulating accompanied by a short-range ordered state. From density functional theory, we demonstrate how the formation of charge disproportionation results in an insulating ground state of the surface that is disparate from the hidden Mott insulator in the bulk. We demonstrate that voltage pulses induce local modifications to this state which relax over tens of minutes, pointing to a glassy nature of the charge order.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85204293557

U2 - 10.1038/S41467-024-52007-Z

DO - 10.1038/S41467-024-52007-Z

M3 - Article

SN - 2041-1723

VL - 15

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

M1 - 8098

ER -

Avoided metallicity in a hole-doped Mott insulator on a triangular lattice

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