Emergent phase in short-periodic rare-earth nickelate superlattices

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that engineering structural symmetry mismatch in LaNiO3/EuNiO3 superlattices induces emergent electronic and magnetic phases, including a novel antiferromagnetic, charge-ordered insulating state.

Contribution

It introduces a new class of short-periodic superlattices and shows how symmetry mismatch can lead to emergent phases in nickelate heterostructures.

Findings

LaNiO3 exhibits a new antiferromagnetic, charge-ordered insulating phase.

Structural symmetry mismatch induces electronic and magnetic transitions.

Heterostructure engineering can create novel phases not present in bulk materials.

Abstract

Heterostructure engineering provides an efficient way to obtain several unconventional phases of LaNiO3, which is otherwise paramagnetic, metallic in bulk form. In this work, a new class of short periodic superlattices, consisting of LaNiO3 and EuNiO3 have been grown by pulsed laser interval deposition to investigate the effect of structural symmetry mismatch on the electronic and magnetic behaviors. Synchrotron based soft and hard X-ray resonant scattering experiments have found that these heterostructures undergo simultaneous electronic and magnetic transitions. Most importantly, LaNiO3 within these artificial structures exhibits a new antiferromagnetic, charge ordered insulating phase. This work demonstrates that emergent properties can be obtained by engineering structural symmetry mismatch across a heterointerface.