Strain Induced Slater Transition in Polar Metal LiOsO$_3$

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that applying epitaxial biaxial strain to LiOsO$_3$ induces a Slater-type metal-insulator transition, revealing a new method to control its magnetic and electronic properties.

Contribution

The paper shows strain-induced tuning of the electronic state in LiOsO$_3$, leading to a metal-insulator transition and magnetic order, expanding understanding of polar metals.

Findings

LiOsO$_3$ undergoes a Slater transition under tensile strain.

Epitaxial biaxial strain can control magnetism in LiOsO$_3$.

The mechanism extends to NaOsO$_3$, showing opposite pressure effects.

Abstract

LiOsO3 is the first experimentally confirmed polar metal. Previous works suggested that the ground state of LiOsO$_3$ is just close to the critical point of metal-insulator transition. In this work the electronic state of LiOsO$_3$ is tuned by epitaxial biaxial strain, which undergoes the Slater-type metal-insulator transition under tensile strain, i.e., the G-type antiferromagnetism emerges. The underlying mechanism of bandwidth tuning can be extended to its sister compound NaOsO$_3$, which shows an opposite transition from a antiferromagnetic insulator to a nonmagnetic metal under hydrostatic pressure. Our work suggests a feasible route for the manipulation of magnetism and conductivity of polar metal LiOsO$_3$.