Theory of Mott insulator-band insulator heterostructures

Satoshi Okamoto, Andrew J. Millis

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

65 Scopus citations

Abstract

A theory of heterostructures comprised of LaTiO3 (a Mott insulator) and SrTiO3 (a band insulator) is presented. The band structure of the Ti d-electrons is treated with a nearest neighbor tight-binding approximation; the electric fields arising from the La3+/Sr 2+ charge difference and the carriers are treated within a Hartree approximation; and the on-site interactions are treated by unrestricted Hartree-Fock. The phase diagram as a function of interaction strength and layer number is determined and predictions are made for optical conductivity experiments. A noteworthy finding is that the edges of the heterostructure are generally metallic.

Original languageEnglish
Article number075101
Pages (from-to)075101-1-075101-12
JournalPhysical Review B - Condensed Matter and Materials Physics
Volume70
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2004
Externally publishedYes

Funding

The authors acknowledge very helpful conversations with H. Y. Hwang and M. Potthoff. This research was supported by NSF DMR-0338376 (A.J.M.) and JSPS (S.O.).

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