Electrically Tunable Band Gap in Antiferromagnetic Mott Insulator Sr2IrO4

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that the band gap of the antiferromagnetic Mott insulator Sr2IrO4 can be continuously and reversibly tuned using an external electric field, revealing potential for advanced electronic device applications.

Contribution

It is the first to show electrically tunable band gap in a 3D antiferromagnetic Mott insulator, expanding band gap engineering to 5d transition-metal oxides.

Findings

Band gap reduced by up to 16% with electric field

Reversible resistive switching observed

Electrically tunable anisotropic magnetoresistance demonstrated

Abstract

The electronic band gap in conventional semiconductor materials, such as silicon, is fixed by the material's crystal structure and chemical composition. The gap defines the material's transport and optical properties and is of great importance for performance of semiconductor devices like diodes, transistors and lasers. The ability to tune its value would allow enhanced functionality and flexibility of future electronic and optical devices. Recently, an electrically tunable band gap was realized in a 2D material - electronically gated bilayer graphene [1-3]. Here we demonstrate the realization of an electrically tunable band gap in a 3D antiferromagnetic Mott insulator Sr2IrO4. Using nano-scale contacts between a sharpened Cu tip and a single crystal of Sr2IrO4, we apply a variable external electric field up to a few MV/m and demonstrate a continuous reduction in the band gap of Sr2IrO4 by as much as 16%. We further demonstrate the feasibility of reversible resistive switching and electrically tunable anisotropic magnetoresistance,which provide evidence of correlations between electronic transport, magnetic order, and orbital states in this 5d oxide. Our findings suggest a promising path towards band gap engineering in 5d transition-metal oxides that could potentially lead to appealing technical solutions for next-generation electronic devices.