Glassy electrons at the first-order Mott metal-insulator transition

Shreya Kumbhakar, Saurav Islam, Zhiqiang Mao, Yu Wang, Arindam Ghosh

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Mott metal-insulator transition remains one of the most scrutinized concepts in condensed matter physics. However, the kinetics of the charge carriers at the transition, involving both orbital and spin degrees of freedom, still remains poorly understood. A perfect platform to distinguish between the role of such competing interactions is strongly correlated oxides offering rich phase diagrams, which we use here to address the electron kinetics at the transition. We show a critical slowing down of the electron kinetics at the first-order Mott metal-insulator transition in the Ruddlesden-Popper oxide Ca3(Ru0.9Ti0.1)2O7 using low-frequency noise in resistance fluctuations. A critical slowing down of the electron kinetics is manifested as an enhancement of noise by an order of magnitude at the transition with a large shift of the spectral weight to lower frequencies. The second spectrum of noise is frequency dependent, indicating the presence of correlated fluctuations which get suppressed under the application of a magnetic field. Our experiments provide compelling evidence of the formation of a spin-glass phase at the transition in these systems.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numberL201112
JournalPhysical Review B
Volume106
Issue number20
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 15 2022

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Condensed Matter Physics

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