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We report the impact of capping layers on vanadate based transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) to prolong the thermal stability with a minimal loss of resistivity during heat treatment in ambient environment. In the present study, various protecting layers (amorphous Al2O3, LaAlO3 (LAO), TiO2 grown in base pressure and TiO2 deposited under oxygen partial pressure) are grown in-situ on polycrystalline perovskite SrVO3 (SVO) thin films using Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD). The results show that amorphous LaAlO3 is the most promising protection layer among the oxide layers, to preserve both electrical and optical properties of perovskite SVO films from natural as well as artificial aging. Our present approach for a capping layer on SVO may address the long-term stability issues of correlated TCOs and would open an opportunity for the future oxide electronics applications.

Nickel oxide superconductors offer an alternative playground for understanding the formation of Cooper pairs in correlated materials such as the famous cuprates. By studying the La$_{n+1}$Ni$_n$O$_{2n+2}$ phase diagram on the basis of hybrid and spin-polarized density functional theory simulations, we reveal the existence of charge and bond ordered (CBO) insulating phases that are quenched by doping effects, ultimately resulting in a metallic phase at the n=5 member. Nevertheless, the phonons associated with the CBO identified in the phase diagram remain sufficiently large to mediate Cooper pairs in La$_6$Ni$_5$O$_{12}$, yielding a computed critical temperature between T$_c$=11-19K consistent with the 13K observed experimentally in Nd$_6$Ni$_5$O$_{12}$. Thus, in order to identify the superconducting mechanism, extracting the relevant instabilities in the doping phase diagram of superconductors appears critical.

Superconductivity is one of the most intriguing properties of matter described by an attractive interaction that bounds electrons into Cooper pairs. To date, the highest critical temperature at ambient conditions is achieved in copper oxides. While layered nickel oxides were long proposed to be analogous to cuprates, superconductivity was only demonstrated in 2019 albeit without clarifying the pairing mechanism. Here we use Density Functional Theory (DFT) to show that superconductivity in nickelates is driven by an electron-phonon coupling originating from a charge ordering. Due to an intrinsic electronic instability in half-doped compounds, Ni$^{1.5+}$ cations dismutate into more stable Ni$^+$ and Ni$^{2+}$ cations, which is accompanied by a bond disproportionation of NiO$_4$ complexes producing an insulating charge ordered state. Once doping suppresses the instability, the bond disproportionation vibration is sufficient to reproduce the key characteristic of nickelates observed experimentally, notably the dome of T$_c$ as a function of doping content. These phenomena are identified if relevant degrees of freedom as well as an exchange correlation functional that sufficiently amends self-interaction errors are involved in the simulations. Finally, despite the presence of correlation effects inherent to $3d$ elements, nickelates superconductors appear similar to non-magnetic bismuth oxide superconductors.

Rare-earth nickelates RNiO$_2$ adopting an infinite-layer phase show superconductivity once La, Pr or Nd are substituted by a divalent cation. Either in the pristine or doped form, these materials are reported to adopt a high symmetry, perfectly symmetric, P4/mmm tetragonal cell. Nevertheless, bulk compounds are scarce, hindering a full understanding of the role of chemical pressure or strain on lattice distortions that in turn could alter magnetic and electronic properties of the 2D nickelates. Here, by performing a full analysis of the prototypical YNiO$_2$ compound with first-principles simulations, we identify that these materials are prone to exhibit O$_4$ group rotations whose type and amplitude are governed by the usual R-to-Ni cation size mismatch. We further show that these rotations can be easily tuned by external stimuli modifying lattice parameters such as pressure or strain. Finally, we reveal that H intercalation is favored for any infinite-layer nickelate member and pushes the propensity of the compounds to exhibit octahedra rotations.

We present a temperature and doping dependent resonant inelastic X-ray scattering experiment at the V L$_{2,3}$ and O K edges in La$_{1-x}$Sr$_x$VO$_3$ for $x=0$ and $x=0.1$. This material is a canonical example of a compound that exhibits a filling control metal-insulator transition and undergoes orbital ordering and antiferromagnetic transitions at low temperature. Temperature dependent measurements at the V L$_{3}$ edge reveal an intra-t$_{2g}$ excitation that blueshifts by 40 meV from room temperature to 30 K at a rate that differs between the para- and antiferromagnetic phases. The lineshape can be partially explained by a purely local model using crystal field theory calculations. At $x=0.1$ the doping is shown to affect the local electronic structure primarily on the O sites, which is in disagreement with a simple Mott-Hubbard picture. We reveal the presence of phonon overtone features at the O K edge, which evidences that the low energy part of the spectrum is dominated by phonon response.

Understanding of the metal-insulator transition (MIT) in correlated transition-metal oxides is a fascinating topic in condensed matter physics and a precise control of such transitions plays a key role in developing novel electronic devices. Here we report an effective tuning of the MIT in epitaxial SrVO3 (SVO) films by expanding the out-of-plane lattice constant without changing in-plane lattice parameters, through helium ion irradiation. Upon increase of the ion fluence, we observe a MIT with a crossover from metallic to insulating state in SVO films. A combination of transport and magnetoresistance measurements in SVO at low temperatures reveals that the observed MIT is mainly ascribed to electron-electron interactions rather than disorder-induced localization. Moreover, these results are well supported by the combination of density functional theory and dynamical mean field theory (DFT+DMFT) calculations, further confirming the decrease of the bandwidth and the enhanced electron-electron interactions resulting from the expansion of out-of-plane lattice constant. These findings provide new insights into the understanding of MIT in correlated oxides and perspectives for the design of unexpected functional devices based on strongly correlated electrons., Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures,submitted to Phys. Rev. Materials

Transition-metal oxides with an ABO$_3$ perovskite structure exhibit strongly entangled structural and electronic degrees of freedom and thus, one expects to unveil exotic phases and properties by acting on the lattice through various external stimuli. Using the Jahn-Teller active praseodymium vanadate Pr$^{3+}$V$^{3+}$O$_3$ compound as a model system, we show that PrVO$_3$ N\'eel temperature T$_N$ can be raised by 40 K with respect to the bulk when grown as thin films. Using advanced experimental techniques, this enhancement is unambiguously ascribed to a tetragonality resulting from the epitaxial compressive strain experienced by the films. First-principles simulations not only confirm experimental results, but they also reveal that the strain promotes an unprecedented orbital-ordering of the V$^{3+}$ d electrons, strongly favouring antiferromagnetic interactions. These results show that an accurate control of structural aspects is the key for unveiling unexpected phases in oxides.

Transition metal oxide thin films show versatile electrical, magnetic, and thermal properties which can be tailored by deliberately introducing macroscopic grain boundaries via polycrystalline solids. In this study, we focus on the modification of the magnetic and thermal transport properties by fabricating single- and polycrystalline epitaxial SrRuO3 thin films using pulsed laser epitaxy. Using epitaxial stabilization technique with atomically flat polycrystalline SrTiO3 substrate, epitaxial polycrystalline SrRuO3 thin film with crystalline quality of each grain comparable to that of single-crystalline counterpart is realized. In particular, alleviated compressive strain near the grain boundaries due to coalescence is evidenced structurally, which induced enhancement of ferromagnetic ordering of the polycrystalline epitaxial thin film. The structural variations associated with the grain boundaries further reduce the thermal conductivity without deteriorating the electronic transport, and lead to enhanced thermoelectric efficiency in the epitaxial polycrystalline thin films, compared with their single-crystalline counterpart., Comment: 24 pages, 5 figures

We study the transport properties in SrVO3/LaVO3 (SVO/LVO) superlattices deposited on SrTiO3 (STO) substrates. We show that the electronic conduction occurs in the metallic LVO layers with a galvanomagnetism typical of a 2D Fermi surface. In addition, a Kondo-like component appears in both the thermal variation of resistivity and the magnetoresistance. Surprisingly, in this system where the STO interface does not contribute to the measured conduction, the Kondo correction is strongly anisotropic. We show that the growth temperature allows a direct control of this contribution. Finally, the key role of vanadium mixed valency stabilized by oxygen vacancies is enlightened., Comment: Accepted In Journal of Physics: Cond Mat. Supp Mat File included

Comparison between single- and the poly-crystalline structures provides essential information on the role of long-range translational symmetry and grain boundaries. In particular, by comparing single- and poly-crystalline transition metal oxides (TMOs), one can study intriguing physical phenomena such as electronic and ionic conduction at the grain boundaries, phonon propagation, and various domain properties. In order to make an accurate comparison, however, both single- and poly-crystalline samples should have the same quality, e.g., stoichiometry, crystallinity, thickness, etc. Here, by studying the surface properties of atomically flat poly-crystalline SrTiO3 (STO), we propose an approach to simultaneously fabricate both single- and poly-crystalline epitaxial TMO thin films on STO substrates. In order to grow TMOs epitaxially with atomic precision, an atomically flat, single-terminated surface of the substrate is a prerequisite. We first examined (100), (110), and (111) oriented single-crystalline STO surfaces, which required different annealing conditions to achieve atomically flat surfaces, depending on the surface energy. A poly-crystalline STO surface was then prepared at the optimum condition for which all the domains with different crystallographic orientations could be successfully flattened. Based on our atomically flat poly-crystalline STO substrates, we envision expansion of the studies regarding theTMOdomains and grain boundaries., Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures, 1 table

A series of 100 nm LaVO3 thin films have been synthesized on (001)-oriented SrTiO3 substrates using the pulsed laser deposition technique, and the effects of growth temperature are analyzed. Transport properties reveal a large electronic mobility and a non-linear Hall effect at low temperature. In addition, a cross-over from a semiconducting state at high-temperature to a metallic state at low-temperature is observed, with a clear enhancement of the metallic character as the growth temperature increases. Optical absorption measurements combined with the two-bands analysis of the Hall effect show that the metallicity is induced by the diffusion of oxygen vacancies in the SrTiO3 substrate. These results allow to understand that the film/substrate heterostructure behaves as an original semiconducting-metallic parallel resistor, and electronic transport properties are consistently explained., Comment: Improved version as accepted in Journ Phys: Cond Mat. Additional Optical measurements are presented

A \ce{(LaVO_3)_6/(SrVO_3)_3} superlattice is studied with a combination of sub-{\AA} resolved scanning transmission electron microscopy and monochromated electron energy-loss spectroscopy. The V oxidation state is mapped with atomic spatial resolution enabling to investigate electronic reconstruction at the \ce{LaVO_3}/\ce{SrVO_3} interfaces. Surprisingly, asymmetric charge distribution is found at adjacent chemically symmetric interfaces. The local structure is proposed and simulated with double channeling calculation which agrees qualitatively with our experiment. We demonstrate that local strain asymmetry is the likely cause of the electronic asymmetry of the interfaces. The electronic reconstruction at the interfaces extends much further than the chemical composition, varying from 0.5 to 1.2 nm. This distance corresponds to the length of charge transfer previously found in the \ce{(LaVO_3)_m}/\ce{(SrVO_3)_n} metal/insulating and the \ce{(LaAlO_3)_m}/\ce{(SrTiO_3)_n} insulating/insulating interfaces., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures. Physical Review B, 2013

Bulk p and n-type bismuth telluride were prepared using spark plasma texturization method. The texture development along the uniaxial load in the 001 direction is confirmed from both x-ray diffraction analysis and Electron Backscattering Diffraction measurements. Interestingly, those textured samples outperform the samples prepared by conventional spark plasma sintering (SPS) leading to a reduced thermal conductivity in the ab-plane. The textured samples of n- type BiTe2.7Se0.3 and p-type Bi0.5Sb1.5Te3 showed a 42% and 33% enhancement in figure of merit at room temperature respectively, as compared to their SPS counterparts, opening the route for applications., Comment: This paper has been withdrawn due to a mistake in measurements

YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{7}$ - La$_{2 / 3}$Sr$_{1 / 3}$MnO$_{3}$ heterostructures of [110] orientation are grown to allow direct injection of spin polarized holes from the La$_{2 / 3}$Sr$_{1 / 3}$MnO$_{3}$ into the CuO$_2$ superconducting planes. The magnetic response of the structure at T $<$ T$_{sc}$ shows both diamagnetic and ferromagnetic moments with [001] direction as magnetic easy axis. While the superconducting transition temperature (T$_{sc}$) of these structures is sharp ($\Delta$T$_{sc} \simeq$ 2.5 K), the critical current density (J$_c$) follows a dependence of the type $J_c = J{_o}(1-\frac{T}{T_{sc}})^{3/2}$ with highly suppressed J$_o$ ($\simeq 2 \times 10^4$ A/cm$^2$) indicating strong pair breaking effects of the ferromagnetic boundary., Comment: 12 pages five figures

The structure and microstrucutre of fully-strained BiCrO3 thin films have been investigated by X-rays diffraction and transmission electron microscopy, at room temperature. Interestingly, three structural variants are simultaneously stabilized within the film. While txo of them are consistent with the existing phases in the bulk-below and above the 420 K structural transition, a different phase is identified. The existence of various structures has been attributed to the inhomogeneous distribution of local strains and oxygens resulting from a minimization of the strain-energy at the interface. These findings will open the route to a better understanding of Bi-based perovskites and metastable phases., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, to be published in Applied Physics Letters

Using first principle calculations we showed that the Curie temperature of manganites thin films can be increased by far more than an order of magnitude by applying appropriate strains. Our main breakthrough is that the control of the orbital ordering responsible for the spectacular $T_C$ increase cannot be imposed by the substrate only. Indeed, the strains, first applied by the substrate, need to be maintained over the growth direction by the alternation of the manganite layers with another appropriate material. Following these theoretical findings, we synthesized such super-lattices and verified our theoretical predictions.