Intertwined Density Waves in a Metallic Nickelate

Published

November 26, 2020

Author(s)

Junjie Zhang, D. Phelan, A. S. Botana, Yu-Sheng Chen, Hong Zheng, M. Krogstad, Suyin G. Wang, Yiming Qiu, Jose Rodriguez Rivera, R. Osborn, S. Rosenkranz, M. R. Norman, J. F. Mitchell

Abstract

Nickelates are a rich class of materials, ranging from insulating magnets to superconductors. But for stoichiometric materials, insulating behavior is the norm, as for most late transition metal oxides. Notable exceptions are the 3D perovskite LaNiO₃, an unconventional paramagnetic metal, and the layered Ruddlesden-Popper phases R₄Ni₃O₁₀, (R=La, Pr, Nd). The latter are particularly intriguing because they exhibit an unusual metal-to-metal transition. Here, we demonstrate that this transition results from an incommensurate density wave with both charge and magnetic character that lies intermediate in behavior between the metallic density wave seen in chromium metal and the insulating stripes typically found in layered nickelates. As such, R₄Ni₃O₁₀, which appears to be the first known example of an itinerant spin density wave in a 3d transition metal oxide, represents an important bridge between the paramagnetism of 3D metallic LaNiO₃ at higher nickel valence and the polaronic behavior of quasi-2D Rd2-xSr_xNiO₄ at lower nickel valence.

Citation

Nature Materials

Volume

11

Issue

1

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

nickelate, density wave

Citation

Zhang, J. , Phelan, D. , Botana, A. , Chen, Y. , Zheng, H. , Krogstad, M. , Wang, S. , Qiu, Y. , Rodriguez Rivera, J. , Osborn, R. , Rosenkranz, S. , Norman, M. and Mitchell, J. (2020), Intertwined Density Waves in a Metallic Nickelate, Nature Materials (Accessed October 27, 2025)