Strain dependent transport properties of the quasi two-dimensional correlated metal, LaNiO$_{3}$

TL;DR

This study investigates how hetero-epitaxial strain influences the electrical transport and quantum corrections in ultrathin LaNiO$_{3}$ films, revealing a transition from Mott to Mott-Anderson regimes with increasing strain and decreasing temperature.

Contribution

It provides new insights into strain-dependent quantum transport phenomena in ultrathin correlated metal films, highlighting the evolution of localization effects.

Findings

Increased tensile strain enhances carrier localization.

Weak localization significantly affects low-temperature conductance.

Strain induces a transition from Mott to Mott-Anderson regimes.

Abstract

We explore the electrical transport and magneto-conductance in quasi two-dimensional strongly correlated ultrathin films of LaNiO$_{3}$ (LNO) to investigate the effect of hetero-epitaxial strain on electron-electron and electron-lattice interactions from the low to intermediate temperature range (2K$\sim$170K). The fully epitaxial 10 unit cell thick films spanning tensile strain up to $\sim4%$ are used to investigate effects of enhanced carrier localization driven by a combination of weak localization and electron-electron interactions at low temperatures. The magneto-conductance data shows the importance of the increased contribution of weak localization to low temperature quantum corrections. The obtained results demonstrate that with increasing tensile strain and reduced temperature the quantum confined LNO system gradually evolves from the Mott into the Mott-Anderson regime.