A supercrystal formation previously unobserved in a metal-insulating material was discovered by a Cornell-led research team, potentially unlocking new ways to engineer materials and devices with tunable electronic properties.
The researchers showed that the atomic structure in the thin-film Mott insulator Ca2RuO4—part of a unique family of materials that can switch between being a metal and an insulator due to quantum effects—forms an anisotropic, organized pattern with multiple spatial periods below temperatures of 200 to 250-degrees Kelvin. The spontaneous supercrystal formation was detailed June 17 in the journal Advanced Materials.
"This is a great example of complexity arising from simplicity," said Oleg Gorobtsov, postdoctoral fellow and lead author of the study.
"Usually, to create a supercrystal, you have to artificially engineer multiple layers of different materials on top of each other. Here is an example of how a relatively simple system demonstrates a very complex hierarchy of phase domains with different length scales."
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