Probing spin correlations using angle-resolved photoemission in a coupled metallic/Mott insulator system
Abstract
A nearly free electron metal and a Mott insulating state can be thought of as opposite ends of the spectrum of possibilities for the motion of electrons in a solid. Understanding their interaction lies at the heart of the correlated electron problem. In the magnetic oxide metal PdCrO2, nearly free and Mott-localized electrons exist in alternating layers, forming natural heterostructures. Using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, quantitatively supported by a strong coupling analysis, we show that the coupling between these layers leads to an “intertwined” excitation that is a convolution of the charge spectrum of the metallic layer and the spin susceptibility of the Mott layer. Our findings establish PdCrO2 as a model system in which to probe Kondo lattice physics and also open new routes to use the a priori nonmagnetic probe of photoemission to gain insights into the spin susceptibility of correlated electron materials.
Citation
Sunko , V , Mazzola , F , Kitamura , S , Khim , S , Kushwaha , P , Clark , O J , Watson , M , Markovic , I , Biswas , D , Pourovskii , L , Kim , T K , Lee , T -L , Thakur , P K , Rosner , H , Georges , A , Moessner , R , Oka , T , Mackenzie , A P & King , P D C 2020 , ' Probing spin correlations using angle-resolved photoemission in a coupled metallic/Mott insulator system ' , Science Advances , vol. 6 , no. 6 , eaaz0611 . https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaz0611
Publication
Science Advances
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2375-2548Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Description
Funding: European Research Council (Grant Nos. ERC-714193-QUESTDO and ERC-319286-QMAC), the Royal Society, the Leverhulme Trust (Grant Nos. RL-2016-006 and PLP-2015-144R); EPSRC for PhD studentship support through grant numbers EP/L015110/1 and EP/K503162/1. I.M. acknowledges PhD studentship support from the IMPRS for the Chemistry and Physics of Quantum MaterialsCollections
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