Revealing the role of lattice distortions in the hydrogen-induced metal-insulator transition of SmNiO3

Jikun Chen (), Wei Mao, Binghui Ge, Jiaou Wang, Xinyou Ke, Vei Wang, Yiping Wang, Max Döbeli, Wentong Geng, Hiroyuki Matsuzaki, Jian Shi () and Yong Jiang ()
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Jikun Chen: University of Science and Technology Beijing
Wei Mao: the University of Tokyo
Binghui Ge: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Jiaou Wang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xinyou Ke: Case Western Reserve University
Vei Wang: Xi’an University of Technology
Yiping Wang: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy
Max Döbeli: Laboratory of Ion Beam Physics, ETH Zurich
Wentong Geng: University of Science and Technology Beijing
Hiroyuki Matsuzaki: the University of Tokyo
Jian Shi: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy
Yong Jiang: University of Science and Technology Beijing

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract The discovery of hydrogen-induced electronic phase transitions in strongly correlated materials such as rare-earth nickelates has opened up a new paradigm in regulating materials’ properties for both fundamental study and technological applications. However, the microscopic understanding of how protons and electrons behave in the phase transition is lacking, mainly due to the difficulty in the characterization of the hydrogen doping level. Here, we demonstrate the quantification and trajectory of hydrogen in strain-regulated SmNiO3 by using nuclear reaction analysis. Introducing 2.4% of elastic strain in SmNiO3 reduces the incorporated hydrogen concentration from ~1021 cm−3 to ~1020 cm−3. Unexpectedly, despite a lower hydrogen concentration, a more significant modification in resistivity is observed for tensile-strained SmNiO3, substantially different from the previous understanding. We argue that this transition is explained by an intermediate metastable state occurring in the transient diffusion process of hydrogen, despite the absence of hydrogen at the post-transition stage.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-08613-3

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