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Lee, Ho Nyung

Publications and source records attributed to Lee, Ho Nyung.

Strain Programming of Oxygen Octahedral Symmetry in Perovskite Oxide Thin Films

The collective rotations of oxygen octahedra play an important role in determining the physical properties of functional perovskite oxides. The epitaxial strain can serve as an effective means to modify the oxygen octahedral symmetry (OOS), i.e., oxygen octahedral rotation or tilt (OOR/OOT). However, the strain-OOS coupling that may alter the details of the OOS, thereby the physical properties, has not been fully understood. In this work, it is demonstrated that epitaxial strain can not only induce a structural phase transition but also precisely tune the degree of OOR. The correlated metal CaNbO 3 , which is orthorhombic, is studied by growing as epitaxial thin films. By imposing epitaxial strain, it is found that the film undergoes a structural phase transition from orthorhombic to tetragonal upon fully straining (i.e., from a + b − b − to a 0 a 0 c − ). In unstrained films, the octahedral rotation along the c-axis is as large as 15.7° that can be tuned to 6.6° by strain. This finding offers a general approach to manipulating OOR/OOT via strain engineering in complex oxide heterostructures.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Large anomalous Hall conductivity induced by spin chirality fluctuation in an ultraclean frustrated antiferromagnet PdCrO 2

Magnetic frustration, realized in the special geometrical arrangement of localized spins, often promotes topologically nontrivial spin textures in the real space and induces significantly large unconventional Hall responses. This spin Berry curvature effect in itinerant frustrated magnets mainly works with a static spin order, limiting the effective temperature range below the magnetic transition temperature and yielding the typical anomalous Hall conductivity below ~ 10 3 Ω -1 cm -1 . Here we show that an ultraclean triangular-lattice antiferromagnet PdCrO 2 exhibits a large anomalous Hall conductivity up to ~ 10 6 Ω -1 cm -1 in the paramagnetic state, which is maintained far above the Neel temperature (T N ) up to ~ 4T N . The reported enhancement of anomalous Hall response above T N is attributed to the skew scattering of highly mobile Pd electrons to fluctuating but locally-correlated Cr spins with a finite spin chirality. Our findings point at an alternative route to realizing high-temperature giant anomalous Hall responses, exploiting magnetic frustration in the ultraclean regime.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Intermittent Defect Fluctuations in Oxide Heterostructures

Abstract The heterogeneous nature, local presence, and dynamic evolution of defects typically govern the ionic and electronic properties of a wide variety of functional materials. While the last 50 years have seen considerable efforts into development of new methods to identify the nature of defects in complex materials, such as the perovskite oxides, very little is known about defect dynamics and their influence on the functionality of a material. Here, the discovery of the intermittent behavior of point defects (oxygen vacancies) in oxide heterostructures employing X‐ray photon correlation spectroscopy is reported. Local fluctuations between two ordered phases in strained SrCoO x with different degrees of stability of the oxygen vacancies are observed. Ab‐initio‐informed phase‐field modeling reveals that fluctuations between the competing ordered phases are modulated by the oxygen ion/vacancy interaction energy and epitaxial strain. The results demonstrate how defect dynamics, evidenced by measurement and modeling of their temporal fluctuations, give rise to stochastic properties that now can be fully characterized using coherent X‐rays, coupled for the first time to multiscale modeling in functional complex oxide heterostructures. The study and its findings open new avenues for engineering the dynamical response of functional materials used in neuromorphic and electrochemical applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Stable Supercapacity of Binder-Free TiO 2 (B) Epitaxial Electrodes for All-Solid-State Nanobatteries

Owing to its pseudocapacitive, unidimensional, rapid ion channels, TiO 2 (B) is a promising material for application to battery electrodes. In this study, we align these channels by epitaxially growing TiO 2 (B) films with the assistance of an isostructural VO 2 (B) template layer. In a liquid electrolyte, binder-free TiO 2 (B) epitaxial electrodes exhibit a supercapacity near the theoretical value of 335 mA h g –1 and an excellent charge–discharge reproducibility for ≥200 cycles, which outperform those of other TiO 2 (B) nanostructures. For the all-solid-state configuration employing the LiPON solid electrolyte, excellent stability persists. Our findings suggest excellent potential for miniaturizing all-solid-state nanobatteries in self-powered integrated circuits.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Testing electron–phonon coupling for the superconductivity in kagome metal CsV 3 Sb 5

In crystalline materials, electron-phonon coupling (EPC) is a ubiquitous many-body interaction that drives conventional Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer superconductivity. Recently, in a new kagome metal CsV 3 Sb 5 , superconductivity that possibly intertwines with time-reversal and spatial symmetry-breaking orders is observed. Density functional theory calculations predicted weak EPC strength, λ, supporting an unconventional pairing mechanism in CsV 3 Sb 5 . However, experimental determination of λ is still missing, hindering a microscopic understanding of the intertwined ground state of CsV 3 Sb 5 . Here, using 7-eV laser-based angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and Eliashberg function analysis, we determine an intermediate λ=0.45–0.6 at T = 6 K for both Sb 5p and V 3d electronic bands, which can support a conventional superconducting transition temperature on the same magnitude of experimental value in CsV3Sb5. Remarkably, the EPC on the V 3d-band enhances to λ~0.75 as the superconducting transition temperature elevated to 4.4 K in Cs(V 0.93 Nb 0.07 ) 3 Sb 5 . Our results provide an important clue to understand the pairing mechanism in the kagome superconductor CsV 3 Sb 5 .

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Thermodynamic Understanding of Impurity Phase Segregation in a PdCrO 2 /CuCrO 2 Heterostructure

Abstract PdCrO 2 films are synthesized on CuCrO 2 buffer layers on Al 2 O 3 substrates. This synthesis is accompanied by impurity phase segregation, which hampers the synthesis of high quality PdCrO 2 films. Potential causes ofth impurity phase segregation are studied by using a combination of experiments and ab initio calculations. X‐ray diffraction and scanning transmission electron microscopy experiments reveal impurity phases of Cu x Pd 1 − x alloy and chromium oxides, Cr 2 O 3 and Cr 3 O 4 , in PdCrO 2 . Calculations determine that oxygen deficiency can cause the impurity phase segregation. Therefore, preventing oxygen release from delafossites can suppress the impurity phase segregation. The amounts of Cr 2 O 3 and Cr 3 O 4 depend on temperature and oxygen partial pressure. A reasonable theory‐based explanation for this experimental observation is provided.

2D metal↗