@article{33404, keywords = {Room temperature, Nanotechnology, Orders of magnitude, Electronic structure, Spin-orbit couplings, Anisotropic deformation, External perturbations, Insulating state, Piezoresistance, Room-temperature resistivity}, author = {N Domingo and L López-Mir and M Paradinas and V Holy and J Železný and D Yi and S.J Suresha and J F Liu and C. Rayan Serrao and Ramamoorthy Ramesh and C Ocal and X Marti and G Catalan}, title = {Giant reversible nanoscale piezoresistance at room temperature in Sr2IrO4 thin films}, abstract = {Layered iridates have been the subject of intense scrutiny on account of their unusually strong spin-orbit coupling, which opens up a narrow bandgap in a material that would otherwise be a metal. This insulating state is very sensitive to external perturbations. Here, we show that vertical compression at the nanoscale, delivered using the tip of a standard scanning probe microscope, is capable of inducing a five orders of magnitude change in the room temperature resistivity of Sr2IrO4. The extreme sensitivity of the electronic structure to anisotropic deformations opens up a new angle of interest on this material, with the giant and fully reversible perpendicular piezoresistance rendering iridates as promising materials for room temperature piezotronic devices. This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.}, year = {2015}, journal = {Nanoscale}, volume = {7}, number = {8}, pages = {3453-3459}, publisher = {Royal Society of Chemistry}, issn = {20403364}, doi = {10.1039/c4nr06954d}, note = {cited By 12}, language = {eng}, }