Modulation of metal-insulator transitions by field-controlled strain in NdNiO(3)/SrTiO(3)/PMN-PT (001) heterostructures

The band width control through external stress has been demonstrated as a useful knob to modulate metal-insulator transition (MIT) in RNiO(3) as a prototype correlated materials. In particular, lattice mismatch strain using different substrates have been widely utilized to investigate the effect of strain on transition temperature so far but the results were inconsistent in the previous literatures. Here, we demonstrate dynamic modulation of MIT based on electric field-controlled pure strain in high-quality NdNiO(3) (NNO) thin films utilizing converse-piezoelectric effect of (001)-cut [Image: see text]-[Image: see text] (PMN-PT) single crystal substrates. Despite the difficulty in the NNO growth on rough PMN-PT substrates, the structural quality of NNO thin films has been significantly improved by inserting SrTiO(3) (STO) buffer layers. Interestingly, the MIT temperature in NNO is downward shifted by ~3.3 K in response of 0.25% in-plane compressive strain, which indicates less effective T(MI) modulation of field-induced strain than substrate-induced strain. This study provides not only scientific insights on band-width control of correlated materials using pure strain but also potentials for energy-efficient electronic devices.