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Results for “electronic phase separation”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

Spinodal electronic phase separation during insulator-metal transitions

Electronic phase transitions such as insulator-metal transitions are common in strongly correlated systems. Here, using a combination of thermodynamic linear-stability analysis and phase-field simulations and employing VO 2 as a prototypical example, we predict that an insulator-metal transition driven by photoexcitation may involve an intermediate, modulated charge density state with a temperature-dependent characteristic wavelength. It is shown that such an intermediate two-phase electronic state is formed through a spinodal mechanism and that its formation can be generic for insulator-metal transitions driven by fast stimuli. This transient electronic phase separation is expected to stimulate future experimental and computational efforts.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Two-component electronic phase separation in the doped Mott insulator Y 1-x Ca x TiO 3

One of the major puzzles in condensed matter physics has been the observation of a Mott-insulating state away from half-filling. Several theoretical proposals aimed to elucidate this phenomenon have been put forth, a notable one being phase separation and an associated percolation-induced Mott insulator-metal transition. In the present work we study the prototypical doped Mott-insulating rare-earth titanate YTiO 3 , in which the insulating state survives up to a large hole concentration of 35%. Single crystals of Y 1-x Ca x TiO 3 with 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.5, spanning the insulator-metal transition, are grown and investigated. Using x-ray absorption spectroscopy, a powerful technique capable of probing element-specific electronic states, we find that the primary effect of hole doping is to induce electronic phase separation into hole-rich and hole-poor regions. The data reveal the formation of electronic states within the Mott-Hubbard gap, near the Fermi level, which increase in spectral weight with increasing doping. From a comparison with DFT+U calculations, we infer that the hole-poor and hole-rich components have charge densities that correspond to the insulating x = 0 and metallic x ~ 0.5 states, respectively, and that the new electronic states arise from the metallic component. Our results indicate that the doping-induced insulator-metal transition in Y 1-x Ca x TiO 3 is indeed percolative in nature, and thus of inherent first-order character.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2020

Nonmonotonic crossover in electronic phase separated manganite superlattices driven by the superlattice period

Studying manganite superlattices [(LCMO) 2n / (PCMO) n ] t made of La 0.625 Ca 0.375 MnO 3 (LCMO) and Pr 0.625 Ca 0.375 MnO 3 (PCMO), we found an unexpected behavior varying the period n. At small n, the ensemble is a three-dimensional ferromagnetic metal due to interfacial charge transfer. At large n , the LCMO layers dominate transport. However, rather than a smooth interpolation between these limits a sharp transport and magnetic anomaly is found at an intermediate critical PCMO thickness n*. Magnetic force microscopy reveals that the phase-separation length scale also maximizes at n* where, unexpectedly, it becomes comparable to that of the (La 1-y Pr y ) 0.625 Ca 0.375 MnO 3 (LPCMO) alloy. Finally, we conjecture the phenomenon originates in a disorder-related length scale: Large charge-ordered clusters as in LPCMO can only nucleate when Pr-rich regions reach a critical size related to n*.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2020

Mapping the structural, magnetic and electronic behavior of (Eu 1-x Ca x ) 2 Ir 2 O 7 across a metal-insulator transition

In this study, we employ bulk electronic properties characterization and x-ray scattering/spectroscopy techniques to map the structural, magnetic and electronic properties of (Eu 1-x Ca x ) 2 Ir 2 O 7 as a function of Ca-doping. As expected, the metal-insulator transition temperature, T-MIT, decreases with Ca-doping until a metallic state is realized down to 2 K. In contrast, T-AFM becomes decoupled from the MIT and (likely short-range) AFM order persists into the metallic regime. This decoupling is understood as a result of the onset of an electronically phase separated state, the occurrence of which seemingly depends on both synthesis method and rare earth site magnetism. PDF analysis suggests that electronic phase separation occurs without accompanying chemical phase segregation or changes in the short-range crystallographic symmetry while synchrotron x-ray diffraction confirms that there is no change in the long-range crystallographic symmetry. X-ray absorption measurements confirm the $J_{eff}$ = 1/2 character of (Eu 1-x Ca x ) 2 Ir 2 O 7 . Surprisingly these measurements also indicate a net electron doping, rather than the expected hole doping, indicating a compensatory mechanism. Lastly, XMCD measurements show a weak Ir magnetic polarization that is largely unaffected by Ca-doping. Keywords: term, term, term.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2025

Competing pair density wave and uniform 𝑑-wave superconductivity in phase-separated 214 cuprates at the 1/8 anomaly

Compelling evidence exists for electronic phase separation in cuprate high-𝑇𝑐 superconductors, emerging near 1/8 hole doping. At these dopings and low temperatures, intertwined charge and spin stripes coexist with more uniformly doped regions in the two-dimensional (2D) copper-oxide planes. Each region is capable of developing superconducting pairing, either as a pair density wave (PDW) within the stripes or as a uniform 𝑑-wave condensate (𝑑-SC) in the more homogeneous regions. Using neutron scattering on single crystals of La1.875−𝑦⁢Nd𝑦⁢Sr0.125⁢CuO4, we demonstrate that the onset temperatures for spin stripe order (𝑇𝑁) and superconductivity (𝑇𝑐) merge as the average ordered moment vanishes in LSCO (𝑦=0), whereas Nd doping stabilizes static stripe order and suppresses 𝑇𝑐. Because the spin stripes possess the same in-plane periodicity (8⁢𝑎) as the PDW and establish the framework within which the PDW resides, the stabilization of spin stripe order enhances PDW correlations. Thus, the competition between 𝑑-wave pairing in the uniform regions and PDW pairing in the stripe-ordered regions can be controlled by the Nd concentration in La1.875−𝑦⁢Nd𝑦⁢Sr0.125⁢CuO4, allowing the superconducting 𝑇𝑐 to vary by nearly an order of magnitude at a fixed 1/8-hole doping.

Aczel, Adam [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000319641943)↗
DOE OSTI2021

Arrested Phase Separation in Double-Exchange Models: Large-Scale Simulation Enabled by Machine Learning

In this work, we present large-scale dynamical simulations of electronic phase separation in the single-band double-exchange model based on deep-learning neural-network potentials trained from small-size exact diagonalization solutions. We uncover an intriguing correlation-induced freezing behavior as doped holes are segregated from half filled insulating background during equilibration. While the aggregation of holes is stabilized by the formation of ferromagnetic clusters through Hund’s coupling between charge carriers and local magnetic moments, this stabilization also creates confining potentials for holes when antiferromagnetic spin-spin correlation is well developed in the background. The dramatically reduced mobility of the self-trapped holes prematurely disrupts further growth of the ferromagnetic clusters, leading to an arrested phase separation. Implications of our findings for phase separation dynamics in materials that exhibit colossal magnetoresistance effect are discussed.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2022

Exploration of two surfaces observed in Weyl semimetal BaMnSb 2

Single crystalline BaMnSb 2 is considered as a 3D Weyl semimetal with the 2D electronic structure containing Dirac cones from the Sb sheet. We report experimental investigation of low-temperature cleaved BaMnSb 2 surfaces using scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy and low energy electron diffraction. By natural cleavage, we find two terminations: one is Ba (above the orthorhombically distorted Sb sheet) and another Sb2 (at the surface of the Sb/Mn/Sb sandwich layer). Both terminations show the 2×1 surface reconstructions, with drastically different morphologies and electronic properties, however. The reconstructed structures, defect types and nature of the electronic structures of the two terminations are extensively studied. The quasiparticle interference (QPI) analysis is conducted at the energy range between -2 V and 2 V, although no interesting states are observed near the Fermi level, the surface-projected electronic band structures strongly depend on the surface termination above 1.6 V. The existence of defects can greatly modify the local density of states to create electronic phase separations on the surface in the order of tens of nm scale. Our observation on the atomic structures of the terminations and the corresponding electronic structures provides critical information towards an understanding of topological properties of BaMnSb 2 .

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Phase Separation in (Ga,Mn)As Layers Obtained by Ion Implantation and Subsequent Laser Annealing

In this paper, we present the results of studies of the spectral, temperature, and field dependences of the transversal Kerr effect in Ga{sub 1 –} {sub x}Mn{sub x}As (x = 0.0066–0.033) layers produced by ion implantation and subsequent pulsed laser annealing. The complicated nonmonotonous nature of the temperature dependences of the transversal Kerr effect and its dependence on the measurement range indicate a magnetic inhomogeneity of the layers. The reasons for the inhomogeneity can be the Gaussian distribution of Mn over the thickness of the layers and the electron phase separation in them. The appearance of new features in the spectra of the transversal Kerr effect is explained by the presence in the doped semiconductor matrix of nanoregions with a higher carrier concentration and a higher Curie temperature and a shift of the Fermi level into the valence band leading to an increase in the energy of optical transitions.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2022

Effect of Mn doping and charge transfer on LaTi 1- x Mn x O 3

Here, we report the magnetic and electronic transport properties of Mn-doped LaTi 1-x Mn x O 3 (x= 0, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5) as a function of temperature and an applied magnetic field. It was found that the Mn-doped samples show a magnetic transition which is not present in the parent LaTiO 3 . The Mn-doped samples showed fluctuations in magnetization at low fields below their Néel transition temperature indicating electronic phase separation in the material. Increased Mn content in the sample strengthens the ferromagnetic-like moment while maintaining G-type antiferromagnetic phase by charge transfer from Mn to Ti and influencing orbital ordering of the Ti 3+ t 2g orbitals. The results are discussed in parallel with transport and bulk magnetization measurements detailing the electronic behavior. An additional context for the mechanism is supported by first-principles density-function theory calculations.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2024

Electron Glass Phase with Resilient Zhang-Rice Singlets in LiCu 3 ⁢O 3

LiCu 3 ⁢O 3 is an antiferromagnetic mixed valence cuprate where trilayers of edge-sharing Cu(II)O (3⁢d 9 ) are sandwiched in between planes of Cu(I) (3⁢d 10 ) ions, with Li stochastically substituting Cu(II). Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and density functional theory reveal two insulating electronic subsystems that are segregated in spite of sharing common oxygen atoms: a Cu d z 2 /O p z derived valence band (VB) dispersing on the Cu(I) plane, and a Cu 3⁢d x 2 -y 2 /O 2⁢p x,y derived Zhang-Rice singlet (ZRS) band dispersing on the Cu(II)O planes. First-principle analysis shows the Li substitution to stabilize the insulating ground state, but only if antiferromagnetic correlations are present. Li further induces substitutional disorder and a 2D electron glass behavior in charge transport, reflected in a large 530 meV Coulomb gap and a linear suppression of VB spectral weight at E F that is observed by ARPES. Surprisingly, the disorder leaves the Cu(II)-derived ZRS largely unaffected. Finally, this indicates a local segregation of Li and Cu atoms onto the two separate corner-sharing Cu⁡(II)⁢O 2 sub-lattices of the edge-sharing Cu(II)O planes, and highlights the ubiquitous resilience of the entangled two hole ZRS entity against impurity scattering.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2022

Nanoscale Antiferromagnetic Domain Imaging using Full-Field Resonant X-ray Magnetic Diffraction Microscopy

The physical properties of magnetic materials frequently depend not only on the microscopic spin and electronic structures, but also on the structures of mesoscopic length scales that emerge, for instance, from domain formations, or chemical and/or electronic phase separations. However, experimental access to such mesoscopic structures is currently limited, especially for antiferromagnets with net zero magnetization. Here, full-field microscopy and resonant magnetic X-ray diffraction are combined to visualize antiferromagnetic (AF) domains of the spin–orbit Mott insulator Sr 2 IrO 4 with area over ≈0.1 mm 2 and with spatial resolution as high as ≈150 nm. With the unprecedented wide field of views and high spatial resolution, an intertwining of two AF domains on a length comparable to the measured average AF domain wall width of 545 nm is revealed. This mesoscopic structure comprises a substantial portion of the sample surface, and thus can result in a macroscopic response unexpected from its microscopic magnetic structure. In particular, the symmetry analysis presented in this work shows that the inversion symmetry, which is preserved by the microscopic AF order, becomes ill-defined at the mesoscopic length scale. We report this result underscores the importance of this novel technique for a thorough understanding of the physical properties of antiferromagnets.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Mechanisms enabling reconfigurability and long-term retention in vanadium oxide electrochemical memory

Phase coexistence in nanoscale electrochemical random-access memory (ECRAM) has recently been demonstrated to enable both information storage and extraordinary reconfigurability. These proof-of-principle demonstrations have left the mechanistic details of such a process unresolved. Particularly, the mechanisms that stabilize the multiple phases, and the underlying processes behind sustained memory retention, remain unclear, and are necessary to design such devices. Here we report microscale ECRAM devices composed of V⁢O𝑥, which enables us to directly probe the active region in an operando fashion using optical techniques. Using Raman mapping, we show the phase coexistence driven by the electrochemical injection of O vacancies to be spatially uniform (i.e., with no filaments). The stability was observed to be unusually long, with 1% loss over 14 years in ambient conditions. First-principles calculations of the oxygen vacancy formation energies in V⁢O 𝑥 further support the thermodynamic coexistence of multiple V⁢O 𝑥 phases and clarify the origin of the observed long-term retention in the ECRAM devices. Further, we demonstrate single devices that can be voltage programmed to exhibit synaptic, neuronal, and reconfigurable logic gate functionalities. Furthermore, we not only uncover the phase coexistence mechanism that may help device design, but also demonstrate the circuit-level applications of reconfigurability.

Electrical conductivity↗
DOE OSTI2021

Scanning SQUID characterization of extremely overdoped La 2-x Sr x CuO 4

Recently, advances in film synthesis methods have enabled a study of extremely overdoped La 2 - x Sr x Cu O 4 . This has revealed a surprising behavior of the superfluid density as a function of doping and temperature, the explanation of which is vividly debated. One popular class of models posits electronic phase separation, where the superconducting phase fraction decreases with doping, while some competing phase (e.g., ferromagnetic) progressively takes over. A problem with this scenario is that all the way up to the dome edge the superconducting transition remains sharp, according to mutual inductance measurements. However, the physically relevant scale is the Pearl penetration depth Λ P , and this technique probes the sample on a length scale L that is much larger than Λ P . In the present paper, we use local scanning superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) measurements that probe the susceptibility of the sample on the scale L << Λ P . Our SQUID maps show uniform landscapes of susceptibility and excellent overall agreement of the local penetration depth data with the bulk measurements. Overall, these results contribute an important piece to the puzzle of how high-temperature superconductivity vanishes on the overdoped side of the cuprate phase diagram.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2022

Machine learning predictions for local electronic properties of disordered correlated electron systems

We present a scalable machine learning (ML) model to predict local electronic properties such as on-site electron number and double occupation for disordered correlated electron systems. Our approach is based on the locality principle, or the nearsightedness nature, of many-electron systems, which means local electronic properties depend mainly on the immediate environment. A ML model is developed to encode this complex dependence of local quantities on the neighborhood. We demonstrate our approach using the square-lattice Anderson-Hubbard model, which is a paradigmatic system for studying the interplay between Mott transition and Anderson localization. We develop a lattice descriptor based on the group-theoretical method to represent the on-site random potentials within a finite region. The resultant feature variables are used as input to a multilayer fully connected neural network, which is trained from data sets of variational Monte Carlo (VMC) simulations on small systems. We show that the ML predictions agree reasonably well with the VMC data. Our work underscores the promising potential of ML methods for multiscale modeling of correlated electron systems.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Magnetic small-angle neutron scattering

Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) is one of the most important techniques for microstructure determination, being utilized in a wide range of scientific disciplines, such as materials science, physics, chemistry, and biology. The reason for its great significance is that conventional SANS is probably the only method capable of probing structural inhomogeneities in the bulk of materials on a mesoscopic real-space length scale from roughly 1 to 300 nm. Moreover, the exploitation of the spin degree of freedom of the neutron provides SANS with a unique sensitivity to study magnetism and magnetic materials at the nanoscale. As such, magnetic SANS ideally complements more real-space and surface-sensitive magnetic imaging techniques, e.g., Lorentz transmission electron microscopy, electron holography, magnetic force microscopy, Kerr microscopy, or spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy. This review summarizes the recent applications of the SANS method to study magnetism and magnetic materials. Here, this includes a wide range of materials classes from nanomagnetic systems such as soft magnetic Fe-based nanocomposites, hard magnetic Nd-Fe-B-based permanent magnets, magnetic steels, ferrofluids, nanoparticles, and magnetic oxides to more fundamental open issues in contemporary condensed matter physics such as skyrmion crystals, noncollinear magnetic structures in noncentrosymmetric compounds, magnetic or electronic phase separation, and vortex lattices in type-II superconductors. Special attention is paid not only to the vast variety of magnetic materials and problems where SANS has provided direct insight, but also to the enormous progress made regarding the micromagnetic simulation of magnetic neutron scattering.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2022

Anomalous phase separation in a correlated electron system: Machine-learning–enabled large-scale kinetic Monte Carlo simulations

Significance Phase separation is crucial to the functionalities of many correlated electron materials with notable examples including colossal magnetoresistance in manganites and high- T c superconductivity in cuprates. However, the nonequilibrium phase-separation dynamics in such systems are poorly understood theoretically, partly because the required multiscale modeling is computationally very demanding. With the aid of machine-learning methods, we have achieved large-scale dynamical simulations in a representative correlated electron system. We observe an unusual relaxation process that is beyond the framework of classical phase-ordering theories. We also uncover a correlation-induced freezing behavior, which could be a generic feature of phase separation in correlated electron systems.

Zhang, Sheng↗
NASA NTRS1993

Gas flow-field induced director alignment in polymer dispersed liquid crystal microdroplets deposited on a glass substrate

Polymer dispersed liquid crystal thin films have been deposited on glass substrates by the processes of polymerization and solvent evaporation induced phase separation. The electron and the optical polarization microscopies of the films reveal that PDLC microdroplets formed during the process of phase separation near the top surface of the film remain exposed and respond to shear stress due to air or gas flow on the surface. Optical response of the film to an air flow-induced shear stress input on the free surface has been measured. Director orientation in the droplets changes with the applied shear stress leading to time varying transmitted light intensity. Director dynamics of the droplet for an applied step shear stress has been discussed from free energy considerations. Results on the measurement of light transmission as a function of the gas flow parameter unambiguously demonstrate the potential of these systems for use as boundary layer and gas flow sensors.

Parmar, D. S.↗