English

Pressure Tuned Insulator to Metal Transition in Eu$_2$Ir$_2$O$_7$

Strongly Correlated Electrons 2012-05-16 v2 Other Condensed Matter

Abstract

We have studied the effect of pressure on the pyrochlore iridate Eu2_2Ir2_2O7_7, which at ambient pressure has a thermally driven insulator to metal transition at TMI120T_{MI}\sim120\,K. As a function of pressure the insulating gap closes, apparently continuously, near P6P \sim 6\,GPa. However, rather than TMIT_{MI} going to zero as expected, the insulating ground state crosses over to a metallic state with a negative temperature coefficient of resistivity, calling into question the true nature of both ground states. The high temperature state also crosses over near 6 GPa, from an incoherent to a conventional metal, suggesting a connection between the high and the low temperature states.

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Cite

@article{arxiv.1107.2544,
  title  = {Pressure Tuned Insulator to Metal Transition in Eu$_2$Ir$_2$O$_7$},
  author = {F. F. Tafti and J. J. Ishikawa and A. McCollam and S. Nakatsuji and S. R. Julian},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1107.2544},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

7 pages, 7 figures, updated after publication in Physical Review B