Engineered Mott ground state in artificial LaNiO3/(NiO)(n)/LaNiO3 heterostructure

Understanding and controlling the metal-insulator transition (MIT) can provide great opportunities for electronic devices. Here, artificial LaNiO3/(NiO)(n)/LaNiO3 has been synthesized. MIT temperatures have been tuned by changing the thickness of the artificial NiO insert layer. The Ni 2p core-level spectra and O K-edge have been investigated. The linear relationship between the hybridization T (or bandwidth W) and the MIT temperature has been clearly demonstrated. In this work, we realized the Mott ground state by modulating the parameters of T and the covalency W, which might be significant for the development of multifunctional materials. (C) 2018 The Japan Society of Applied Physics