Modulation Doping near Mott-Insulator Heterojunctions

TL;DR

This paper proposes a method to create strongly correlated two-dimensional electron systems using modulation doping near Mott insulator heterojunctions, enabling control over magnetic states with minimal disorder.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to engineer correlated electron systems at Mott insulator interfaces through modulation doping, combining theoretical insights from Hartree-Fock and Dynamical Mean-Field Theory.

Findings

Larger setback distances favor antiferromagnetism.

Weak disorder due to remote doping enhances correlated states.

Estimates of key properties for specific material combinations.

Abstract

We argue that interesting strongly correlated two-dimensional electron systems can be created by modulation doping near a heterojunction between Mott insulators. Because the dopant atoms are remote from the carrier system, the electronic system will be weakly disordered. We argue that the competition between different ordered states can be engineered by choosing appropriate values for the dopant density and the setback distance of the doping layer. In particular larger setback distances favor two-dimensional antiferromagnetism over ferromagnetism. We estimate some key properties of modulation-doped Mott insulator heterojunctions by combining insights from Hartree-Fock-Theory and Dynamical-Mean-Field-Theory descriptions and discuss potentially attractive material combinations.