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Insulator-to-metal crossover near the edge of the superconducting dome in Nd1−xSrxNiO2

Yu-Te Hsu1,*, Bai Yang Wang2,3, Maarten Berben1, Danfeng Li3,4,5, Kyuho Lee2,3, Caitlin Duffy1, Thom Ottenbros1, Woo Jin Kim3,4, Motoki Osada3,6 et al.

Steffen Wiedmann1, Harold Y. Hwang3,4,†, and Nigel E. Hussey1,7,‡

  • 1High Field Magnet Laboratory (HFML-EMFL) and Institute for Molecules and Materials, Radboud University, Toernooiveld 7, 6525 ED Nijmegen, Netherlands
  • 2Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA
  • 3Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, Stanford, California 94025, USA
  • 4Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA
  • 5Department of Physics, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong 999077, China
  • 6Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA
  • 7H. H. Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TL, United Kingdom

  • *yute.hsu@ru.nl
  • †hyhwang@stanford.edu
  • ‡nigel.hussey@ru.nl
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Phys. Rev. Research 3, L042015 – Published 2 November, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.L042015

Abstract

We report a systematic magnetotransport study of superconducting infinite-layer nickelate thin films Nd1−xSrxNiO2 with 0.15≤x≤0.225. By suppressing superconductivity with out-of-plane magnetic fields up to 37.5 T, we find that the normal state resistivity of Nd1−xSrxNiO2 is characterized by a crossover from a metallic T2 behavior to an insulating log(1/T) behavior for all x except x=0.225, at which the resistivity is predominantly metallic. The log(1/T) behavior is found to be robust against magnetic fields, inconsistent with scenarios involving localization or Kondo scattering, and points to an anomalous insulating state possibly driven by strong correlations. In the metallic state, we find no evidence for non-Fermi-liquid behavior arising from proximity to a putative quantum critical point located inside the superconducting dome.

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Phys. Rev. Research 3, L042015– Published 2 November, 2021
  • Received 19 January 2021
  • Accepted 1 October 2021
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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