Chemically induced Jahn–Teller ordering on manganite surfaces

Authors

Zheng Gai, Oak Ridge National LaboratoryFollow
Wenzhi Lin, Oak Ridge National LaboratoryFollow
John D. Burton, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
K. Fuchigami, Research Laboratory, IHI Corporation, Yokohama, Japan
Paul C. Snijders, Oak Ridge National LaboratoryFollow
T. Z. Ward, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Evgeny Y. Tsymbal, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
J. Shen, University of Tennessee, KnoxvilleFollow
Stephen Jesse, Oak Ridge National LaboratoryFollow
Sergei V. Kalinin, Oak Ridge National LaboratoryFollow
Arthur P. Baddorf, Oak Ridge National LaboratoryFollow

Date of this Version

7-24-2014

Citation

NATURE COMMUNICATIONS 5, 4528 (2014). DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5528

Comments

Copyright 2014 NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP. Used by permission.

Abstract

Physical and electrochemical phenomena at the surfaces of transition metal oxides and their coupling to local functionality remains one of the enigmas of condensed matter physics. Understanding the emergent physical phenomena at surfaces requires the capability to probe the local composition, map order parameter fields and establish their coupling to electronic properties. Here we demonstrate that measuring the sub-30-pm displacements of atoms from high-symmetry positions in the atomically resolved scanning tunnelling microscopy allows the physical order parameter fields to be visualized in real space on the single-atom level. Here, this local crystallographic analysis is applied to the in-situ-grown manganite surfaces. In particular, using direct bond-angle mapping we report direct observation of structural domains on manganite surfaces, and trace their origin to surface-chemistryinduced stabilization of ordered Jahn–Teller displacements. Density functional calculations provide insight into the intriguing interplay between the various degrees of freedom now resolved on the atomic level.