From quantum criticality to enhanced thermopower in strongly correlated layered cobalt oxide

We report on susceptibility measurements in the strongly correlated layered cobalt oxide [BiBa0.66K0.36O2]CoO2, which demonstrate the existence of a magnetic quantum critical point (QCP) governing the electronic properties. The investigated low frequency susceptibility displays a scaling behavior with both the temperature T and the magnetic field B ranging from the high-T non-Fermi liquid down to the low-T Fermi liquid. Whereas the inferred scaling form can be discussed within the standard framework of the quantum critical phenomena, the determined critical exponents suggest an unconventional magnetic QCP of a potentially generic type. Accordingly, these quantum critical fluctuations account for the anomalous logarithmic temperature dependence of the thermopower. This result allows us to conjecture that quantum criticality can be an efficient source of enhanced thermopower

Cluster Dynamical Mean Field analysis of the Mott transition

We investigate the Mott transition using a cluster extension of dynamical mean field theory (DMFT). In the absence of frustration we find no evidence for a finite temperature Mott transition. Instead, in a frustrated model, we observe signatures of a finite temperature Mott critical point in agreement with experimental studies of kappa-organics and with single site DMFT. As the Mott transition is approached, a clear momentum dependence of the electron lifetime develops on the Fermi surface with the formation of cold regions along the diagonal direction of the Brillouin zone. Furthermore the variation of the effective mass is no longer equal to the inverse of the quasi particle residue, as in DMFT, and is reduced approaching the Mott transition.Comment: 4 page

Universality and Critical Behavior at the Mott transition

We report conductivity measurements of Cr-doped V2O3 using a variable pressure technique. The critical behavior of the conductivity near the Mott-insulator to metal critical endpoint is investigated in detail as a function of pressure and temperature. The critical exponents are determined, as well as the scaling function associated with the equation of state. The universal properties of a liquid-gas transition are found. This is potentially a generic description of the Mott critical endpoint in correlated electron materials.Comment: 3 figure

Magnetoresistance scaling in the layered cobaltate Ca3Co4O9

We investigate the low temperature magnetic field dependences of both the resistivity and the magnetization in the misfit cobaltate Ca3Co4O9 from 60 K down to 2 K. The measured negative magnetoresistance reveals a scaling behavior with the magnetization which demonstrates a spin dependent diffusion mechanism. This scaling is also found to be consistent with a shadowed metalliclike conduction over the whole temperature range. By explaining the observed transport crossover, this result shed a new light on the nature of the elementary excitations relevant to the transport

Strain induced pressure effect in pulsed laser deposited thin films of the strongly correlated oxide V2O3

V2O3 thin films about 10 nm thick were grown on Al2O3 (0001) by pulsed laser deposition. The XRD analysis is in agreement with R-3c space group. Some of them exhibit the metal / insulator transition characteristic of V2O3 bulk material and others samples exhibit a metallic behavior. For the latter, the XPS analysis indicates an oxidation state of +III for vanadium. There is no metal / insulator transition around 150 K in this sample and a strongly correlated Fermi liquid rho = AT2 behavior of the resistivity at low temperature is observed, with a value of A of 1.2 10-4 ohm cm, 3 times larger than the bulk value at 25 kbar

Unconventional Hall effect in oriented Ca3_3Co4_4O9_9 thin films

Transport properties of the good thermoelectric misfit oxide Ca$_3$Co$_4$O$_9$ are examined. In-plane resistivity and Hall resistance measurements were made on epitaxial thin films which were grown on {\it c}-cut sapphire substrates using the pulsed laser deposition technique. Interpretation of the in-plane transport experiments relates the substrate-induced strain in the resulting film to single crystals under very high pressure ($\sim$ 5.5 GPa) consistent with a key role of strong electronic correlation. They are confirmed by the measured high temperature maxima in both resistivity and Hall resistance. While hole-like charge carriers are inferred from the Hall effect measurements over the whole investigated temperature range, the Hall resistance reveals a non monotonic behavior at low temperatures that could be interpreted with an anomalous contribution. The resulting unconventional temperature dependence of the Hall resistance seems thus to combine high temperature strongly correlated features above 340 K and anomalous Hall effect at low temperature, below 100 K.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review B (2005

Strongly correlated properties of the thermoelectric cobalt oxide Ca3Co4O9

We have performed both in-plane resistivity, Hall effect and specific heat measurements on the thermoelectric cobalt oxide Ca$_{3}$Co$_{4}$O$_{9}$. Four distinct transport regimes are found as a function of temperature, corresponding to a low temperature insulating one up to $T_{min}\approx$63 K, a strongly correlated Fermi liquid up to $T^*\approx$140 K, with $\rho=\rho_0+AT^2$ and $A\approx 3.63$ $10^{-2} \mu \Omega cm/K^{2}$, followed by an incoherent metal with $k_Fl\leq 1$ and a high temperature insulator above T$^{**}\approx$510 K . Specific heat Sommerfeld coefficient $\gamma = 93$ mJ/(mol.K$^{2}$) confirms a rather large value of the electronic effective mass and fulfils the Kadowaki-Woods ratio $A/\gamma^2 \approx 0.45$ 10$^{-5}$ $\mu \Omega cm.K^2/(mJ^2mol^{-2})$. Resistivity measurements under pressure reveal a decrease of the Fermi liquid transport coefficient A with an increase of $T^*$ as a function of pressure while the product $A(T^*)^2/a$ remains constant and of order $h/e^2$. Both thermodynamic and transport properties suggest a strong renormalization of the quasiparticles coherence scale of order $T^*$ that seems to govern also thermopower.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review

Thickness-dependence of the electronic properties in V2O3 thin films

High quality vanadium sesquioxide V2O3 films (170-1100 {\AA}) were grown using the pulsed laser deposition technique on (0001)-oriented sapphire substrates, and the effects of film thickness on the lattice strain and electronic properties were examined. X-ray diffraction indicates that there is an in-plane compressive lattice parameter (a), close to -3.5% with respect to the substrate and an out-of-plane tensile lattice parameter (c) . The thin film samples display metallic character between 2-300 K, and no metal-to-insulator transition is observed. At low temperature, the V2O3 films behave as a strongly correlated metal, and the resistivity (\rho) follows the equation \rho =\rho_0 + A T^2, where A is the transport coefficient in a Fermi liquid. Typical values of A have been calculated to be 0.14 \mu\Omega cm K^{-2}, which is in agreement with the coefficient reported for V2O3 single crystals under high pressure. Moreover, a strong temperature-dependence of the Hall resistance confirms the electronic correlations of these V2O3 thin films samples.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Thinking locally: reflections on Dynamical Mean-Field Theory from a high-temperature/high energy perspective

When spatial correlations are short-range, the physics of strongly correlated systems is controlled by local quantum fluctuations. In those regimes, Dynamical Mean-Field Theory can be viewed as a `compass' which provides guidance on the relevant degrees of freedom and their effective dynamics over intermediate energy scales. These intermediate energy scales and associated crossovers play a crucial role in the physics of strongly correlated materials.Comment: Contribution to Dieter Vollhardt's Festschrift Volum

Hund's coupling and the metal-insulator transition in the two-band Hubbard model

The Mott-Hubbard metal-insulator transition is investigated in a two-band Hubbard model within dynamical mean-field theory. To this end, we use a suitable extension of Wilson's numerical renormalization group for the solution of the effective two-band single-impurity Anderson model. This method is non-perturbative and, in particular, allows to take into account the full exchange part of the Hund's rule coupling between the two orbitals. We discuss in detail the influence of the various Coulomb interactions on thermodynamic and dynamic properties, for both the impurity and the lattice model. The exchange part of the Hund's rule coupling turns out to play an important role for the physics of the two-band Hubbard model and for the nature of the Mott-transition