Glassy electrons at the first-order Mott metal-insulator transition

Kumbhakar, S and Islam, S and Mao, Z and Wang, Y and Ghosh, A (2022) Glassy electrons at the first-order Mott metal-insulator transition. In: Physical Review B, 106 (20).

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Abstract

The Mott metal-insulator transition remains one of the most scrutinized concepts in condensed matter physics. However, the kinetics of the charge carriers at the transition, involving both orbital and spin degrees of freedom, still remains poorly understood. A perfect platform to distinguish between the role of such competing interactions is strongly correlated oxides offering rich phase diagrams, which we use here to address the electron kinetics at the transition. We show a critical slowing down of the electron kinetics at the first-order Mott metal-insulator transition in the Ruddlesden-Popper oxide Ca3(Ru0.9Ti0.1)2O7 using low-frequency noise in resistance fluctuations. A critical slowing down of the electron kinetics is manifested as an enhancement of noise by an order of magnitude at the transition with a large shift of the spectral weight to lower frequencies. The second spectrum of noise is frequency dependent, indicating the presence of correlated fluctuations which get suppressed under the application of a magnetic field. Our experiments provide compelling evidence of the formation of a spin-glass phase at the transition in these systems. © 2022 American Physical Society.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Physical Review B
Publisher:	American Physical Society
Additional Information:	The copyright for this article belongs to American Physical Society.
Keywords:	Degrees of freedom (mechanics); Electrons; Glass; Glass transition; Kinetics; Metal insulator boundaries; Metals; Mott insulators; Semiconductor insulator boundaries; Spin glass, Competing interactions; Condensed-matter physics; Critical slowing down; Electron kinetics; First order; Metal-insulators transitions; Orbital degree of freedom; Rich phase; Ruddlesden-Popper; Spin degrees of freedom, Metal insulator transition
Department/Centre:	Division of Interdisciplinary Sciences > Centre for Nano Science and Engineering Division of Physical & Mathematical Sciences > Physics
Date Deposited:	09 Jan 2023 06:50
Last Modified:	09 Jan 2023 06:50
URI:	https://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/78900

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