Slater to Mott Crossover in the Metal to Insulator Transition of Nd2Ir2O7
We present an angle-resolved photoemission study of the electronic structure of the three-dimensional pyrochlore iridate Nd2Ir2O7 through its magnetic metal-insulator transition. Our data reveal that metallic Nd2Ir2O7 has a quadratic band, touching the Fermi level at the Γ point, similar to that...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | , , , , , , , |
| Format: | article |
| Published: |
2016
|
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10725/16687 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.056403 http://libraries.lau.edu.lb/research/laur/terms-of-use/articles.php https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.056403 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | We present an angle-resolved photoemission study of the electronic structure of the three-dimensional pyrochlore iridate Nd2Ir2O7 through its magnetic metal-insulator transition. Our data reveal that metallic Nd2Ir2O7 has a quadratic band, touching the Fermi level at the Γ point, similar to that of Pr2Ir2O7. The Fermi node state is, therefore, a common feature of the metallic phase of the pyrochlore iridates. Upon cooling below the transition temperature, this compound exhibits a gap opening with an energy shift of quasiparticle peaks like a band gap insulator. The quasiparticle peaks are strongly suppressed, however, with further decrease of temperature, and eventually vanish at the lowest temperature, leaving a nondispersive flat band lacking long-lived electrons. We thereby identify a remarkable crossover from Slater to Mott insulators with decreasing temperature. These observations explain the puzzling absence of Weyl points in this material, despite its proximity to the zero temperature metal-insulator transition. |
|---|