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Phys. Rev. Research 3, 023075 (2021)

Evidence for a percolative Mott insulator-metal transition in doped Sr2IrO4

Zhixiang Sun1,2,*, Jose M. Guevara2, Steffen Sykora2,3, Ekaterina M. Pärschke4, Kaustuv Manna2,5, Andrey Maljuk2, Sabine Wurmehl2,6, Jeroen van den Brink2, Bernd Büchner2,6,7, and Christian Hess2,7,8,†

1 Center for Joint Quantum Studies and Department of Physics, Tianjin University, 300072 Tianjin, China

2 Leibniz-Institute for Solid State and Materials Research, IFW-Dresden, 01069 Dresden, Germany

3 Institute for Theoretical Physics, TU Dresden, 01069 Dresden, Germany

4 Department of Physics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Alabama 35294, USA

5 Max-Planck-Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, 01187 Dresden, Germany

6 Institute for Solid State Physics, TU Dresden, 01069 Dresden, Germany

7 Center for Transport and Devices, TU Dresden, 01069 Dresden, Germany

8 Fakultät für Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, 42097 Wuppertal, Germany

zsun@tju.edu.cn

†  c.hess@uni-wuppertal.de

ABSTRACT

Despite many efforts to rationalize the strongly correlated electronic ground states in doped Mott insulators, the nature of the doping-induced insulator-to-metal transition is still a subject under intensive investigation. Here, we probe the nanoscale electronic structure of the Mott insulator Sr2IrO4−δ with low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and find an enhanced local density of states (LDOS) inside the Mott gap at the location of individual defects which we interpret as defects at apical oxygen sites. A chiral behavior in the topography for those defects has been observed. We also visualize the local enhanced conductance arising from the overlapping of defect states which induces finite LDOS inside of the Mott gap. By combining these findings with the typical spatial extension of isolated defects of about 2 nm, our results indicate that the insulator-to-metal transition in Sr2IrO4−δ could be percolative in nature.

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Center for Joint Quantum Studies, School of Science, Tianjin University     Address : Yaguan Road 135, Jinnan District, 300350 Tianjin, P. R. China