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F. Weiss

Publications and source records attributed to F. Weiss.

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SmNiO3/NdNiO3 thin film multilayers

Rare earth nickelates RENiO3 which attract interest due to their sharp metal-insulator phase transition, are instable in bulk form due to the necessity of an important oxygen pressure to stabilize Ni in its 3+ state of oxidation. Here, we report the stabilization of rare earth nickelates in [(SmNiO3)t/(NdNiO3)t]n thin film multilayers, t being the thickness of layers alternated n times. Both bilayers and multilayers have been deposited by Metal-Organic Chemical Vapour Deposition. The multilayer structure and the presence of the metastable phases SmNiO3 and NdNiO3 are evidenced from by X-ray and Raman scattering. Electric measurements of a bilayer structure further support the structural quality of the embedded rare earth nickelate layers.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci

Raman scattering investigation across the magnetic and MI transition in rare earth nickelate RNiO3 (R = Sm, Nd) thin films

We report a temperature-dependent Raman scattering investigation of thin film rare earth nickelates SmNiO3, NdNiO3 and Sm0.60Nd0.40NiO3, which present a metal-to-insulator (MI) transition at TMI and an antiferromagnetic-paramagnetic Neel transition at TN. Our results provide evidence that all investigated samples present a structural phase transition at TMI but the Raman signature across TMI is significantly different for NdNiO3 (TMI = TN) compared to SmNiO3 and Sm0.60Nd0.40NiO3 (TMI =/ TN). It is namely observed that the paramagnetic-insulator phase (TN < T < TMI) in SmNiO3 and Sm0.60Nd0.40NiO3 is characterized by a pronounced softening of one particular phonon band around 420 cm-1. This signature is unusual and points to an important and continuous change in the distortion of NiO6 octahedra (thus the Ni-O bonding) which stabilizes upon cooling at the magnetic transition. The observed behaviour might well be a general feature for all rare earth nickelates with TMI =/ TN and illustrates intriguing coupling mechanism in the TMI > T > TN regime.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci