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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 100 » Issue 6
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 066102 (2008) [4 pages]

Manifestations of Broken Symmetry: The Surface Phases of Ca2-xSrxRuO4

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R. G. Moore1, V. B. Nascimento1, Jiandi Zhang2,3, J. Rundgren4, R. Jin3, D. Mandrus3, and E. W. Plummer1,3,5
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA
2Department of Physics, Florida International University, Miami, Florida 33199, USA
3Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA
4Department of Theoretical Physics, Alba Nova Research Center, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
5Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA

Received 14 September 2007; published 13 February 2008

The surface structural phases of Ca2-xSrxRuO4 are investigated using quantitative low energy electron diffraction. The broken symmetry at the surface enhances the structural instability against the RuO6 rotational distortion while diminishing the instability against the RuO6 tilt distortion occurring within the bulk crystal. As a result, suppressed structural and electronic surface phase transition temperatures are observed, including the appearance of an inherent Mott metal-to-insulator transition for x=0.1 and possible modifications of the surface quantum critical point near xc∼0.5.

© 2008 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.066102
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.066102
PACS:
68.35.B−, 61.05.jh, 71.30.+h, 74.70.Pq
 
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