Abstract
The spin-orbit Mott insulator provides a fascinating playground to explore insulator-metal transition driven by intertwined charge, spin, and lattice degrees of freedom. Here, we report high-pressure electric resistance and resonant inelastic x-ray scattering measurements on single-crystal up to 63–65 GPa at 300 K. The material becomes a confined metal at 59.5 GPa, showing metallicity in the plane but an insulating behavior along the axis. Such an unusual phenomenon resembles the strange metal phase in cuprate superconductors. Since there is no sign of the collapse of spin-orbit or Coulomb interactions in x-ray measurements, this novel insulator-metal transition is potentially driven by a first-order structural change at nearby pressures. Our discovery points to a new approach for synthesizing functional materials.
- Received 28 October 2015
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.216402
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