2,009 research outputs found
Control of a two-dimensional electron gas on SrTiO3(111) by atomic oxygen
We report on the formation of a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) at the
bare surface of (111) oriented SrTiO3. Angle resolved photoemission experiments
reveal highly itinerant carriers with a 6-fold symmetric Fermi surface and
strongly anisotropic effective masses. The electronic structure of the 2DEG is
in good agreement with self-consistent tight-binding supercell calculations
that incorporate a confinement potential due to surface band bending. We
further demonstrate that alternate exposure of the surface to ultraviolet light
and atomic oxygen allows tuning of the carrier density and the complete
suppression of the 2DEG.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Creation and control of a two-dimensional electron liquid at the bare SrTiO3 surface
Many-body interactions in transition-metal oxides give rise to a wide range
of functional properties, such as high-temperature superconductivity, colossal
magnetoresistance, or multiferroicity. The seminal recent discovery of a
two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) at the interface of the insulating oxides
LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 represents an important milestone towards exploiting such
properties in all-oxide devices. This conducting interface shows a number of
appealing properties, including a high electron mobility, superconductivity,
and large magnetoresistance and can be patterned on the few-nanometer length
scale. However, the microscopic origin of the interface 2DEG is poorly
understood. Here, we show that a similar 2DEG, with an electron density as
large as 8x10^13 cm^-2, can be formed at the bare SrTiO3 surface. Furthermore,
we find that the 2DEG density can be controlled through exposure of the surface
to intense ultraviolet (UV) light. Subsequent angle-resolved photoemission
spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements reveal an unusual coexistence of a light
quasiparticle mass and signatures of strong many-body interactions.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, supplementary information (see other files
Quasiparticle dynamics and spin-orbital texture of the SrTiO3 two-dimensional electron gas
Two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) in SrTiO have become model systems
for engineering emergent behaviour in complex transition metal oxides.
Understanding the collective interactions that enable this, however, has thus
far proved elusive. Here we demonstrate that angle-resolved photoemission can
directly image the quasiparticle dynamics of the -electron subband ladder of
this complex-oxide 2DEG. Combined with realistic tight-binding supercell
calculations, we uncover how quantum confinement and inversion symmetry
breaking collectively tune the delicate interplay of charge, spin, orbital, and
lattice degrees of freedom in this system. We reveal how they lead to
pronounced orbital ordering, mediate an orbitally-enhanced Rashba splitting
with complex subband-dependent spin-orbital textures and markedly change the
character of electron-phonon coupling, co-operatively shaping the low-energy
electronic structure of the 2DEG. Our results allow for a unified understanding
of spectroscopic and transport measurements across different classes of
SrTiO-based 2DEGs, and yield new microscopic insights on their functional
properties.Comment: 10 pages including supplementary information, 4+4 figure
Strong electron correlations in the normal state of FeSe0.42Te0.58
We investigate the normal state of the '11' iron-based superconductor
FeSe0.42Te0.58 by angle resolved photoemission. Our data reveal a highly
renormalized quasiparticle dispersion characteristic of a strongly correlated
metal. We find sheet dependent effective carrier masses between ~ 3 - 16 m_e
corresponding to a mass enhancement over band structure values of m*/m_band ~ 6
- 20. This is nearly an order of magnitude higher than the renormalization
reported previously for iron-arsenide superconductors of the '1111' and '122'
families but fully consistent with the bulk specific heat.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Controlling crystal cleavage in Focused Ion Beam shaped specimens for surface spectroscopy
Our understanding of quantum materials is commonly based on precise
determinations of their electronic spectrum by spectroscopic means, most
notably angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and scanning
tunneling microscopy (STM). Both require atomically clean and flat crystal
surfaces which traditionally are prepared by in-situ mechanical cleaving in
ultrahigh vacuum chambers. We present a new approach that addresses three main
issues of the current state-of-the-art methods: 1) Cleaving is a highly
stochastic and thus inefficient process; 2) Fracture processes are governed by
the bonds in a bulk crystal, and many materials and surfaces simply do not
cleave; 3) The location of the cleave is random, preventing data collection at
specified regions of interest. Our new workflow is based on Focused Ion Beam
(FIB) machining of micro-stress lenses in which shape (rather than crystalline)
anisotropy dictates the plane of cleavage, which can be placed at a specific
target layer. As proof-of-principle we show ARPES results from micro-cleaves of
SrRuO along the ac plane and from two surface orientations of
SrTiO, a notoriously difficult to cleave cubic perovskite
Collapse of the Mott gap and emergence of a nodal liquid in lightly doped SrIrO
Superconductivity in underdoped cuprates emerges from an unusual electronic
state characterised by nodal quasiparticles and an antinodal pseudogap. The
relation between this state and superconductivity is intensely studied but
remains controversial. The discrimination between competing theoretical models
is hindered by a lack of electronic structure data from related doped Mott
insulators. Here we report the doping evolution of the Heisenberg
antiferromagnet SrIrO, a close analogue to underdoped cuprates. We
demonstrate that metallicity emerges from a rapid collapse of the Mott gap with
doping, resulting in lens-like Fermi contours rather than disconnected Fermi
arcs as observed in cuprates. Intriguingly though, the emerging electron liquid
shows nodal quasiparticles with an antinodal pseudogap and thus bares strong
similarities with underdoped cuprates. We conclude that anisotropic pseudogaps
are a generic property of two-dimensional doped Mott insulators rather than a
unique hallmark of cuprate high-temperature superconductivity
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Uniaxial Tensile Stress-Strain Relationships of RC Elements Strengthened with FRP Sheets
The shear behavior of fiber-reinforced-polymer–strengthened reinforced concrete (FRP-strengthened RC) members is not fully developed and accurately predicted because of the lack of accurate constitutive laws for the components of the composite members. This paper presents experimental and analytical investigations of tensile stress-strain relationships of concrete and steel in FRP-strengthened RC members. These stress-strain relationships are required in formulations of softened truss models to predict the shear behavior of the FRP-strengthened RC element. Thirteen full-scale FRP-strengthened RC prismatic specimens with different FRP reinforcement ratios, steel reinforcement ratios, and FRP wrapping schemes were tested under uniaxial tension loading. The results show that the tensile behavior of the concrete and steel is altered because of the externally bonded FRP sheets. Modified constitutive laws are proposed and incorporated in the softened membrane model (SMM) to demonstrate through two tests the behavior of FRP-strengthened RC element subjected to pure shear. Moreover, crack spacing and crack width were studied and compared with existing code provisions
Specific-heat study of superconducting and normal states in FeSe1-xTex (0.6<=x<=1) single crystals: Strong-coupling superconductivity, strong electron-correlation, and inhomogeneity
The electronic specific heat of as-grown and annealed single-crystals of
FeSe1-xTex (0.6<=x<=1) has been investigated. It has been found that annealed
single-crystals with x=0.6-0.9 exhibit bulk superconductivity with a clear
specific-heat jump at the superconducting (SC) transition temperature, Tc. Both
2Delta_0/kBTc [Delta_0: the SC gap at 0 K estimated using the single-band BCS
s-wave model] and Delta C/(gamma_n-gamma_0)Tc [Delta C$: the specific-heat jump
at Tc, gamma_n: the electronic specific-heat coefficient in the normal state,
gamma_0: the residual electronic specific-heat coefficient at 0 K in the SC
state] are largest in the well-annealed single-crystal with x=0.7, i.e., 4.29
and 2.76, respectively, indicating that the superconductivity is of the strong
coupling. The thermodynamic critical field has also been estimated. gamma_n has
been found to be one order of magnitude larger than those estimated from the
band calculations and increases with increasing x at x=0.6-0.9, which is
surmised to be due to the increase in the electronic effective mass, namely,
the enhancement of the electron correlation. It has been found that there
remains a finite value of gamma_0 in the SC state even in the well-annealed
single-crystals with x=0.8-0.9, suggesting an inhomogeneous electronic state in
real space and/or momentum space.Comment: 22 pages, 1 table, 6 figures, Version 2 has been accepted for
publication in J. Phys. Soc. Jp
Kinetic frustration and the nature of the magnetic and paramagnetic states in iron pnictides and iron chalcogenides
The iron pnictide and chalcogenide compounds are a subject of intensive
investigations due to their high temperature superconductivity.\cite{a-LaFeAsO}
They all share the same structure, but there is significant variation in their
physical properties, such as magnetic ordered moments, effective masses,
superconducting gaps and T. Many theoretical techniques have been applied
to individual compounds but no consistent description of the trends is
available \cite{np-review}. We carry out a comparative theoretical study of a
large number of iron-based compounds in both their magnetic and paramagnetic
states. We show that the nature of both states is well described by our method
and the trends in all the calculated physical properties such as the ordered
moments, effective masses and Fermi surfaces are in good agreement with
experiments across the compounds. The variation of these properties can be
traced to variations in the key structural parameters, rather than changes in
the screening of the Coulomb interactions. Our results provide a natural
explanation of the strongly Fermi surface dependent superconducting gaps
observed in experiments\cite{Ding}. We propose a specific optimization of the
crystal structure to look for higher T superconductors.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures with a 5-page supplementary materia
Electronic Origin of High Temperature Superconductivity in Single-Layer FeSe Superconductor
The latest discovery of high temperature superconductivity signature in
single-layer FeSe is significant because it is possible to break the
superconducting critical temperature ceiling (maximum Tc~55 K) that has been
stagnant since the discovery of Fe-based superconductivity in 2008. It also
blows the superconductivity community by surprise because such a high Tc is
unexpected in FeSe system with the bulk FeSe exhibiting a Tc at only 8 K at
ambient pressure which can be enhanced to 38 K under high pressure. The Tc is
still unusually high even considering the newly-discovered intercalated FeSe
system A_xFe_{2-y}Se_2 (A=K, Cs, Rb and Tl) with a Tc at 32 K at ambient
pressure and possible Tc near 48 K under high pressure. Particularly
interesting is that such a high temperature superconductivity occurs in a
single-layer FeSe system that is considered as a key building block of the
Fe-based superconductors. Understanding the origin of high temperature
superconductivity in such a strictly two-dimensional FeSe system is crucial to
understanding the superconductivity mechanism in Fe-based superconductors in
particular, and providing key insights on how to achieve high temperature
superconductivity in general. Here we report distinct electronic structure
associated with the single-layer FeSe superconductor. Its Fermi surface
topology is different from other Fe-based superconductors; it consists only of
electron pockets near the zone corner without indication of any Fermi surface
around the zone center. Our observation of large and nearly isotropic
superconducting gap in this strictly two-dimensional system rules out existence
of node in the superconducting gap. These results have provided an unambiguous
case that such a unique electronic structure is favorable for realizing high
temperature superconductivity
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