Coherent epitaxy of trilayer nickelate (Nd0.8Sr0.2)4Ni3O10 films by high-pressure magnetron sputtering

TL;DR

This paper reports the successful synthesis of high-quality trilayer nickelate (Nd0.8Sr0.2)4Ni3O10 films using high-pressure magnetron sputtering, revealing their structural and electronic properties, including a metal-insulator transition.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method for growing epitaxial trilayer nickelate films and characterizes their structural and electronic behaviors.

Findings

Observation of a metal-insulator transition near 82 K

Detection of negative magnetoresistance

Successful synthesis of high-quality trilayer nickelate films

Abstract

Rare-earth (R) nickelates (such as perovskite RNiO3, trilayer R4Ni3O10, and infinite layer RNiO2) have attracted tremendous interest very recently. However, unlike widely studied RNiO3 and RNiO2 films, the synthesis of trilayer nickelate R4Ni3O10 films is rarely reported. Here, single-crystalline (Nd0.8Sr0.2)4Ni3O10 epitaxial films were coherently grown on SrTiO3 substrates by high-pressure magnetron sputtering. The crystal and electronic structures of (Nd0.8Sr0.2)4Ni3O10 films were characterized by high-resolution X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, respectively. The electrical transport measurements reveal a metal-insulator transition near 82 K and negative magnetoresistance in (Nd0.8Sr0.2)4Ni3O10 films. Our work provides a novel route to synthesize high-quality trilayer nickelate R4Ni3O10 films.