Cristian Vaju

Electric‐Pulse‐driven Electronic Phase Separation, Insulator–Metal Transition, and Possible Superconductivity in a Mott Insulator

Experimental evidence of a nonvolatile electric-pulse-induced insulator-to-metal transition and possible superconductivity in the Mott insulator GaTa4 Se8 is reported. Scanning tunneling microscopy experiments show that this unconventional response of the system to short electric pulses arises from a nanometer-scale electronic phase separation generated in the bulk material.HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. Electric Pulse Induced Resistive Switching, Electronic Phase Separation, and Possible Superconductivity in a Mott insulator C. Vaju, Laurent Cario, Benoît Corraze, Etienne Janod, Vincent Dubost, Tristan Cren, D. Roditchev, D. Braithwaite, Olivier Chauvet

Resistive switching at the nanoscale in the Mott insulator compound GaTa4Se8.

We study the Mott insulator compound GaTa4Se8 in which we previously discovered an electric-field-induced resistive transition. We show that the resistive switching is associated to the appearance of metallic and super-insulating nanodomains by means of scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS). Moreover, we show that local electronic transitions can be controlled at the nanoscale at room temperature using the electric field of the STM tip. This opens the way for possible applications in resistive random access memories (RRAM) devices.

Half-metallic ferromagnetism and large negative magnetoresistance in the new lacunar spinel GaTi3VS8.

The lacunar spinel compounds GaTi(4-x)V(x)S(8) (0 < x < 4), consisting of Ti(4-x)V(x) tetrahedral clusters, were prepared and their structures were determined by powder X-ray diffraction. The electronic structures of GaTi(4-x)V(x)S(8) (x = 0, 1, 2, 3) were examined by density functional calculations, and the electrical resistivity and magnetic susceptibility of these compounds were measured. Our calculations predict that GaTi(3)VS(8) is a ferromagnetic half-metal, and this prediction was confirmed by magnetotransport experiments performed on polycrystalline samples of GaTi(3)VS(8). The latter reveal a large negative magnetoresistance (up to 22% at 2 K), which is consistent with the intergrain tunnelling magnetoresistance expected for powder samples of a ferromagnetic half-metal and indicates the presence of high spin polarization greater than 53% in GaTi(3)VS(8).