Hosted by: Yimei Zhu

Capitalizing on the energy competition of charge itineracy with the strong electron-electron and electron-phonon couplings, nanoscale manipulation of the charge and lattice degrees of freedom in strongly correlated oxides can often lead to new functionalities that are inaccessible in the bulk form. In this talk, I will present our studies of the emerging phenomena at epitaxial correlated oxide nanostructures and hetero-interfaces that result from the nanoscale lattice and charge control. By creating nanoscale periodic depth modulation, we have achieved a 50-fold enhancement of the magnetic crystalline anisotropy in ultrathin colossal magnetoresistive (La,Sr)MnO3, which is attributed to a non-equilibrium strain distribution established in the nanostructures [1]. I will also discuss the intricate interplay between epitaxial strain and electric field effect in determining the correlated transport of the charge transfer type Mott insulator (Sm,Nd)NiO3 [2,3], and how the interfacial charge transfer between two correlated oxides can be exploited to effectively engineer the performance of ferroelectric-gated Mott transistors [4]. [1] A. Rajapitamahuni et al., PRL 116, 187201 (2016). [2] L. Zhang et al., JPCM 27, 132201 (2015). [3] L. Zhang et al., APL 107, 152906 (2015). [4] X. Chen et al., Adv. Mater, in press (2017).