Imaging the itinerant-to-localized transmutation of electrons across the metal-to-insulator transition in V
2O
3.
SCIENCE ADVANCES 2021;
7:eabj1164. [PMID:
34730993 PMCID:
PMC8565841 DOI:
10.1126/sciadv.abj1164]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/21/2021] [Accepted: 09/14/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
In solids, strong repulsion between electrons can inhibit their movement and result in a “Mott” metal-to-insulator transition (MIT), a fundamental phenomenon whose understanding has remained a challenge for over 50 years. A key issue is how the wave-like itinerant electrons change into a localized-like state due to increased interactions. However, observing the MIT in terms of the energy- and momentum-resolved electronic structure of the system, the only direct way to probe both itinerant and localized states, has been elusive. Here we show, using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), that in V2O3, the temperature-induced MIT is characterized by the progressive disappearance of its itinerant conduction band, without any change in its energy-momentum dispersion, and the simultaneous shift to larger binding energies of a quasi-localized state initially located near the Fermi level.
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