@article{33444,
  author = {C. Rayan Serrao and J F Liu and J.T Heron and G Singh-Bhalla and Ajay K Yadav and S.J Suresha and R.J Paull and D Yi and J.-H Chu and M Trassin and A Vishwanath and E Arenholz and C Frontera and J Železný and T Jungwirth and X Marti and Ramamoorthy Ramesh},
  title = {Epitaxy-distorted spin-orbit Mott insulator in Sr2IrO 4 thin films},
  abstract = {High-quality epitaxial thin films of Jeff = 1/2 Mott insulator Sr2IrO4 with increasing in-plane tensile strain have been grown on top of SrTiO3(001) substrates. Increasing the in-plane tensile strain up to ∼0.3% was observed to drop the c/a tetragonality by 1.2%. X-ray absorption spectroscopy detected a strong reduction of the linear dichroism upon increasing in-plane tensile strain towards a reduced anisotropy in the local electronic structure. While the most relaxed thin film shows a consistent dependence with previously reported single crystal bulk measurements, electrical transport reveals a charge gap reduction from 200 meV down to 50 meV for the thinnest and most epitaxy-distorted film. We argue that the reduced tetragonality plays a major role in the change of the electronic structure, which is reflected in the change of the transport properties. Our work opens the possibility for exploiting epitaxial strain as a tool for both structural and functional manipulation of spin-orbit Mott systems. © 2013 American Physical Society.},
  year = {2013},
  journal = {Physical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics},
  volume = {87},
  number = {8},
  issn = {10980121},
  doi = {10.1103/PhysRevB.87.085121},
  note = {cited By 58},
  language = {eng},
}