Electronic subband reconfiguration in a d0-perovskite induced by strain-driven structural transformations.
It is well known that transport in lightly n-doped SrTiO(3) involves light and heavy electron bands. We have found that upon application of moderate quasi-isotropic pressures, the relative positions of these subbands are changed by a few meV and, eventually, a band inversion occurs at ~1 kbar. Such effects are, however, suppressed in the closely related KTaO(3) perovskite. We show that the extremely subtle electronic reconfiguration in SrTiO(3) is triggered by strain-induced structural transformations that are accompanied by remarkable mobility enhancements up to about Δμ/μ≈300%. Our results provide a microscopic rationale for the recently discovered transport enhancement under strain and underscore the role of the internal structural degrees of freedom in the modulation of the perovskite electronic properties.
Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), Campus de la UAB, Bellaterra 08193, Catalonia, Spain.
V
V
Laukhin
O
O
Copie
M J
MJ
Rozenberg
R
R
Weht
K
K
Bouzehouane
N
N
Reyren
E
E
Jacquet
M
M
Bibes
A
A
Barthélémy
G
G
Herranz