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Paper   IPM / CMNL / 14887
Condensed Matter National Laboratory
  Title:   Electric-field-driven Mott metal-insulator transition in correlated thin films: An inhomogeneous dynamical mean-field theory approach
  Author(s): 
1.  P Bakalov
2.  Davoud Nasr Esfahani
3.  L Covaci
4.  F. M Peeters
5.  J Tempere
6.  J. P Locquet
  Status:   Published
  Journal: Phys. Rev. B
  Vol.:  93
  Year:  2016
  Publisher(s):   APS Physics
  Supported by:  IPM
  Abstract:
Simulations are carried out based on the dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) in order to investigate the properties of correlated thin films for various values of the chemical potential, temperature, interaction strength, and applied transverse electric field. Application of a sufficiently strong field to a thin film at half filling leads to the appearance of conducting regions near the surfaces of the film, whereas in doped slabs the application of a field leads to a conductivity enhancement on one side of the film and a gradual transition to the insulating state on the opposite side. In addition to the inhomogeneous DMFT, a local density approximation (LDA) is considered in which the particle density n, quasiparticle residue Z, and spectral weight at the Fermi level A(w=0) of each layer are approximated by a homogeneous bulk environment. A systematic comparison between the two approaches reveals that the less expensive LDA results are in good agreement with the DMFT approach, except close to the metal-to-insulator transition points and in the layers immediately at the film surfaces. LDA values for n are overall more reliable than those for Z and A(w=0). The hysteretic behavior (memory effect) characteristic of the bulk doping driven Mott transition persists in the slab.

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