Published April 2014 | Version v1
Journal article

Dimensionality-induced insulator-metal crossover in layered nickelates Lan+1NinO2n+2 (n = 2, 3, and ∞)

  • 1. Key Laboratory of Materials Physics, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031 (China)
  • 2. Laboratory for Computational Physical Sciences (MOE), State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, and Department of physics, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433 (China)
  • 3. Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026 (China)
  • 4. Beijing Computational Science Research Center, Beijing 100084 (China)

Description

Low-valence layered nickelates are a structural analog to the superconducting cuprates and possess interesting properties. In this work, we have systematically studied the electronic structure of Lan+1NinO2n+2 using first-principles calculations. Our results reveal that the Ni-3d 3z2 − r2 orbital state is active and evolves from discrete molecular levels to a continuous solid band and its filling varies as the dimensionality (or n) increases. The two-dimensional (2D) La3Ni2O6 and La4Ni3O8 are thus found to have a molecular insulating state. In contrast, the 3D LaNiO2 is metallic and its 3z2 − r2 band surprisingly becomes 3D due to the Ni-La hybridization, and the La-5d xy orbital also forms a 2D metallic band. Therefore, Lan+1NinO2n+2 is a dimensionality-controlled insulator-metal crossover system

Additional details

Identifiers

Publishing Information

Journal Title
AIP Advances
Journal Volume
4
Journal Issue
4
Journal Page Range
p. 047132-047132.7
ISSN
2158-3226
CODEN
AAIDBI

INIS

Country of Publication
United States
Country of Input or Organization
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
INIS RN
45074234
Subject category
S36: MATERIALS SCIENCE;
Descriptors DEI
ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE; HYBRIDIZATION; METALS; NICKELATES; SOLIDS
Descriptors DEC
ELEMENTS; NICKEL COMPOUNDS; OXYGEN COMPOUNDS; TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS

Optional Information

Notes
(c) 2014 Author(s)