We have studied the effect of pressure on the pyrochlore iridate Eu2Ir2O7, which at ambient pressure has a thermally driven insulator to metal transition at TMI∼120\,K. As a function of pressure the insulating gap closes, apparently continuously, near P∼6\,GPa. However, rather than TMI 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.
@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