J. Fujioka

Mobile metallic domain walls in an all-in-all-out magnetic insulator

Visualizing conducting domain walls When a metal undergoes a phase transition and becomes insulating, it sometimes also becomes magnetically ordered. It is possible that some metallicity survives along the boundaries of magnetic domains, the so-called domain walls, but the question is difficult to address directly in experiments. Ma et al. did just that by mapping out the conductance of the material Nd2Ir2O7 in its low-temperature magnetic insulating phase, using microwave impedance microscopy. The magnetic domain walls showed up clearly in the images as regions of high conductance. Science, this issue p. 538 Microwave impedance microscopy is used to visualize conducting magnetic domain walls in the insulating phase of Nd2Ir2O7. Magnetic domain walls are boundaries between regions with different configurations of the same magnetic order. In a magnetic insulator, where the magnetic order is tied to its bulk insulating property, it has been postulated that electrical properties are drastically different along the domain walls, where the order is inevitably disturbed. Here we report the discovery of highly conductive magnetic domain walls in a magnetic insulator, Nd2Ir2O7, that has an unusual all-in-all-out magnetic order, via transport and spatially resolved microwave impedance microscopy. The domain walls have a virtually temperature-independent sheet resistance of ~1 kilohm per square, show smooth morphology with no preferred orientation, are free from pinning by disorders, and have strong thermal and magnetic field responses that agree with expectations for all-in-all-out magnetic order.

Magnetic Field-Induced Insulator-Semimetal Transition in a Pyrochlore Nd2Ir2O7.

We investigate magnetotransport properties in a single crystal of pyrochore-type Nd2Ir2O7. The metallic conduction is observed on the antiferromagnetic domain walls of the all-in-all-out-type Ir 5d moment ordered insulating bulk state that can be finely controlled by an external magnetic field along [111]. On the other hand, an applied field along [001] induces the bulk phase transition from insulator to semimetal as a consequence of the field-induced modification of the Nd 4f and Ir 5d moment configurations. A theoretical calculation consistently describing the experimentally observed features suggests a variety of exotic topological states as functions of electron correlation and Ir 5d moment orders, which can be finely tuned by the choice of rare-earth ion and magnetic field, respectively.

Ferroelectricity and Pressure-Induced Phenomena Driven by Neutral Ionic Valence Instability of Acid–Base Supramolecules

Supramolecular ferroelectric cocrystals of phenazine (Phz) with chloranilic acid (H(2)ca), bromanilic acid (H(2)ba), and fluoranilic acid (H(2)fa) have been characterized by the interplay between their structural transformations and solid-state acid-base (proton transfer) reactions. At ambient pressure, the Phz-H(2)ca, Phz-H(2)ba, and their deuterated crystals exhibit incomplete proton displacement, which transforms the neutral molecules into semi-ionic at low temperatures below the Curie point (T(c)(IC) < T < T(c)(I)). For the cocrystal of the less acidic H(2)fa, the ferroelectric phase is induced only by applying hydrostatic pressure above ~0.6 GPa. According to the combined studies of temperature-dependent dielectric permittivity and synchrotron X-ray diffraction, it was proved that the ferroelectric (FE-I) phase is always accompanied at lower temperatures by successive phase transitions to the lattice modulated phases with incommensurate periodicities (IC phase, T(c)(II) < T < T(c)(IC)) and with commensurate (2- or 3-fold) periodicities (FE-II or FE-III phase, T < T(c)(II)). Whereas the ground-state structures at ambient pressure are different from one another among the Phz-H(2)ca (FE-II form), Phz-H(2)ba (FE-III form), and Phz-H(2)fa (paraelectric form), their systematic changes under pressure depict a universal pressure-temperature phase diagram. The possible origins of structural changes are assigned to the valence instability and the frustrated Coulomb interactions that induce the charge disproportionation (coexisting neutral ionic) states with the staging spatial orders.

Orbital disordering and the metal-insulator transition with hole doping in perovskite-type vanadium oxides

Filling-control metal-insulator transitions (MITs) and related electronic phase diagrams have been investigated for hole-doped vanadium oxides, Pr_{1-x}Ca_xVO_3, Nd_{1-x}Sr_xVO_3 and Y_{1-x}Ca_xVO_3, with perovskite structure. The increase of the doping level x causes the melting of the G-type (and C-type) orbital order, prior to or concomitantly with the MIT, due partly to the doped-hole motion and partly to the ramdom potential arising from the quenched disorder. In particular, the G-type spin- and C-type orbital-ordered phase present in Y_{1-x}Ca_xVO_3 disappears immediately upon hole doping, around x=0.02. On the other hand, the critical doping level x for MIT is governed by the electron-correlation strength of the undoped parent compound.

Thermoelectric response in the incoherent transport region near Mott transition: the case study of La

We report a systematic investigation on the high-temperature thermoelectric response in a typical filling-control Mott transition system La1-xSrxVO3. In the vicinity of the Mott transition, incoherent charge transport appears with increasing temperature and the thermopower undergoes two essential crossovers, asymptotically approaching the limit values expected from the entropy consideration, as known as Heikes formula. By comparison with the results of the dynamical mean field theory, we show that the thermopower in the Mott critical state mainly measures the entropy per charge carrier that depends on electronic degrees of freedom available at the measurement temperature. Our findings verify that the Heikes formula is indeed applicable to the real correlated electron systems at practical temperatures (T>200K).

_{1-x}

The doping variation of charge and orbital dynamics in perovskite-type Y1-xCaxVO3 (0<x<0.1) is investigated by measurements of the optical conductivity and Raman scattering spectra in comparison with the larger-bandwidth system La1-xSrxVO3. We also take into consideration the magnitude of the GdFeO3-type orthorhombic lattice distortion, which is large and small in Y1-xCaxVO3 and La1-xSrxVO3, respectively, and discuss its effect on the evolution of charge dynamics. The optical conductivity spectra show that the doped hole is well localized and forms the small polaron like state. The hole dynamics in Y1-xCaxVO3 is nearly isotropic up to the doping level of the orbital order-disorder transition, while that in La1-xSrxVO3 is anisotropic in the lightly doped region due to the one-dimensional orbital exchange interaction. The possible origin of the difference in the hole dynamics is discussed in terms of the local lattice distortion, which is induced by the formation of the small polaron like state and becomes more significant for the reduced one-electron bandwidth. In addition, the optical Mott-gap excitation in the nominally C-type spin and

Sr

G

_x

-type orbital ordered phase is distinct from that for La1-xSrxVO3 in its intensity and spectral shape. This suggests that the orthorhombic lattice distortion enhances the modification of the spin and orbital ordering from the pure C-type and G-type, respectively. The systematic study of Raman scattering spectra has shown that the dynamic G-type spin and C-type orbital correlation subsists at low temperatures in the doping induced phase of the nominally C-type SO and G-type OO.

VO

We have explored the critical metal-insulator phenomena for pyrochlore-type

_3

R_2