Nanoscale self-organization and metastable non-thermal metallicity in Mott insulators

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 3730 - 14
• Main Authors: Ronchi, Andrea, Franceschini, Paolo, De Poli, Andrea, Homm, Pía, Fitzpatrick, Ann, Maccherozzi, Francesco, Ferrini, Gabriele, Banfi, Francesco, Dhesi, Sarnjeet S., Menghini, Mariela, Fabrizio, Michele, Locquet, Jean-Pierre, Giannetti, Claudio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 28.06.2022; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/766/119/2795; 639/766/119/995; Chemical Sciences; Corundum; Engineering Sciences; Equilibrium; Excitation; High temperature; Humanities and Social Sciences; Insulators; Light; Low temperature; Metal-insulator transition; Metallicity; Metastable state; Microscopy; Monoclinic lattice; multidisciplinary; Phase transitions; Physics; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Shear strain; Strain; Thin films; Vanadium oxides; X ray microscopy

Mott transitions in real materials are first order and almost always associated with lattice distortions, both features promoting the emergence of nanotextured phases. This nanoscale self-organization creates spatially inhomogeneous regions, which can host and protect transient non-thermal electroni...