Emergent behavior of LaNiO3 in short-periodic nickelate superlattices

• Published in: APL materials Vol. 8; no. 4; pp. 041113 - 041113-7
• Main Authors: Patel, Ranjan Kumar, Meyers, D., Liu, Xiaoran, Mandal, Prithwijit, Kareev, M., Shafer, P., Kim, J.-W., Ryan, P. J., Middey, S., Chakhalian, J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Institute of Physics (AIP) 01.04.2020; AIP Publishing LLC
• Subjects: charge order; magnetism; MATERIALS SCIENCE; Nickelate; superlattice; thin film
• ISSN: 2166-532X; 2166-532X
• DOI: 10.1063/5.0004530

Heterostructure engineering provides an efficient way to obtain several emergent phases of LaNiO3, as demonstrated in recent studies. In this work, a new class of short-periodic superlattice, consisting of LaNiO3 and EuNiO3, has been grown by pulsed laser interval deposition to investigate the effect of structural symmetry mismatch on the electronic and magnetic behaviors. Using synchrotron-based soft and hard x-ray resonant scattering experiments, we have found that these heterostructures undergo simultaneous electronic and magnetic transitions. Most importantly, LaNiO3 within these artificial structures exhibits a new antiferromagnetic, charge ordered insulating phase, which may be a potential candidate to achieve high temperature superconductivity.