Layered iridates have been the subject of intense scrutiny on account of their unusually strong spin-orbit coupling, which opens up a narrow gap 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, and the giant and fully reversible perpendicular piezoresistance makes iridates a promising material for room temperature piezotronic devices.
@article{arxiv.1504.05245,
title = {Giant reversible nanoscale piezoresistance at room temperature in Sr2IrO4 thin films},
author = {Neus Domingo and Laura López-Mir and Marcos Paradinas and Vaclav Holy and Jakuv Zelezny and Di Yi and Siriyara J. Suresha and Jian Liu and Claudy Rayan-Serrao and Ramamoorthy Ramesh and Carmen Ocal and Xavi Martí and Gustau Catalan},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1504.05245},
year = {2015}
}