The Mott Metal-Insulator Transition

The Mott Metal-Insulator Transition
Author: Florian Gebhard
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 318
Release: 2003-07-01
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3540148582

Little do we reliably know about the Mott transition, and we are far from a complete understanding of the metal --insulator transition due to electr- electron interactions. Mott summarized his basic ideas on the subject in his wonderful book Metal--Insulator nansitions that first appeared in 1974 11. 1). In his view, a Motk insulator displays a gap for charge-carrying excitations due to electron cowelations, whose importance is expressed by the presence of local magnetic moments regardless of whether or not they are ordered. Since the subject is far from being settled, different opinions on specific aspects of the Mott transition still persist. This book naturally embodies my own understanding of the phenomenon, inspired by the work of the late Sir Kevill Mott. The purpose of this book is twofold: first, to give a detailed presen- tion of the basic theoretical concopts for Mott insulators and, second, to test these ideas against the results from model calculations. For this purpose the Hubbard model and some of its derivatives are best suited. The Hubbard model describes a Mott transition with a mere minimum of tunable par- eters, and various exact statements and even exact solutions exist in certain limiting cases. Exact solutions not only allow us to test our basic ideas, but also help to assess the quality of approxin~ate theories for correlated electron systems.

Fermi-level Pinning, Charge Transfer, and Relaxation of Spin-momentum Locking at Metal Contacts to Topological Insulators

Fermi-level Pinning, Charge Transfer, and Relaxation of Spin-momentum Locking at Metal Contacts to Topological Insulators
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2014
Genre:
ISBN:

Topological insulators are of interest for many applications in electronics and optoelectronics, but harnessing their unique properties requires detailed understanding and control of charge injection at electrical contacts. Here we present large-scale ab initio calculations of the electronic properties of Au, Ni, Pt, Pd, and graphene contacts to Bi2Se3. We show that regardless of the metal, the Fermi level is located in the conduction band, leading to n-type Ohmic contact to the first quintuplet. Furthermore, we find strong charge transfer and band-bending in the first few quintuplets, with no Schottky barrier for charge injection even when the topoplogical insulator is undoped. Our calculations indicate that Au and graphene leave the spin-momentum locking mostly unaltered, but on the other hand, Ni, Pd, and Pt strongly hybridize with Bi2Se3 and relax spin-momentum locking. In conclusion, our results indicate that judicious choice of the contact metal is essential to reveal the unique surface features of topological insulators.

Watching Electrons Transfer from Metals to Insulators Using Two Photon Photoemission

Watching Electrons Transfer from Metals to Insulators Using Two Photon Photoemission
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 59
Release: 2010
Genre:
ISBN:

Ultrafast angle-resolved two photon photoemission was used to study the dynamics and interfacial band structure of ultrathin films adsorbed onto Ag(111). Studies focused on the image potential state (IPS) in each system as a probe for measuring changes in electronic behavior in differing environments. The energetics and dynamics of the IPS at the toluene/Ag(111) interface are strongly dependent upon coverage. For a single monolayer, the first IPS is bound by 0.81 eV below the vacuum level and has a lifetime of 50 femtoseconds (fs). Further adsorption of toluene creates islands of toluene with an exposed wetting layer underneath. The IPS is then split into two peaks, one corresponding to the islands and one corresponding to the monolayer. The wetting layer IPS shows the same dynamics as the monolayer, while the lifetime of the islands increases exponentially with increasing thickness. Furthermore, the island IPS transitions from delocalized to localized within 500 fs, and electrons with larger parallel momenta decay much faster. Attempts were made using a stochastic model to extract the rates of localization and intraband cooling at differing momenta. In sexithiophene (6T) and dihexyl-sexithiophene (DH6T), the IPS was used as a probe to see if the nuclear motion of spectating side chains can interfere with molecular conduction. The energy and band mass of the IPS was measured for 6T and two geometries of DH6T on Ag(111). Electrons injected into the thicker coverages of DH6T grew exponentially heavier until they were completely localized by 230 fs, while those injected into 6T remained nearly free electron like. Based off of lifetime arguments and the density of defects, the most likely cause for the mass enhancement of the IPS in this system is small polaron formation caused by coupling of the electron to vibrations of the alkyl substituents. The energetic relaxation of the molecular adsorbate was also measured to be 20 meV/100 fs for the DH6T, and 0 meV/100 fs for the 6T. This relaxation is consistent with the localization of the charge creating a barrier for it moving from one lattice site to a neighboring one. Finally, the IPS was used to study the evolution of the surface band gap at the Mg/Ag(111) interface. The Mg(0001) surface band gap lies 1.6 eV below the Fermi level, and consequently shows no peak in the projected density of states for the IPS. A method for creating layer by layer growth of Mg on Ag(111) was determined using Auger Spectroscopy and low energy electron diffraction. By monitoring the decay of the intensity of the IPS versus coverage, it was determined that four layers of magnesium on Ag(111) is sufficient to completely eliminate the surface band gap.

Direct Probe of Mott-Hubbard to Charge-transfer Insulator Transition and Electronic Structure Evolution in Transition-metal Systems

Direct Probe of Mott-Hubbard to Charge-transfer Insulator Transition and Electronic Structure Evolution in Transition-metal Systems
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2011
Genre:
ISBN:

We report the most direct experimental verification of Mott-Hubbard and charge-transfer insulators through x-ray emission spectroscopy in transition-metal (TM) fluorides. The p-d hybridization features in the spectra allow a straightforward energy alignment of the anion-2p and metal-3d valence states, which visually shows the difference between the two types of insulators. Furthermore, in parallel with the theoretical Zaanen-Sawatzky-Allen diagram, a complete experimental systematics of the 3d Coulomb interaction and the 2p-3d charge-transfer energy is reported and could serve as a universal experimental trend for other TM systems including oxides.