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Electronic And Optical Properties Of Metastable Epitaxial Thin Films Of Layered Iridates, Maryam Souri

Theses and Dissertations--Physics and Astronomy

The layered iridates such as Sr₂IrO₄ and Sr₃Ir₂O₇, have attracted substantial attention due to their novel electronic states originating from strong spin-orbit coupling and electron-correlation. Recent studies have revealed the possibilities of novel phases such as topological insulators, Weyl semimetals, and even a potential high-T_c superconducting state with a d-wave gap. However, there are still controversial issues regarding the fundamental electronic structure of these systems: the origin of the insulating gap is disputed as arising either from an antiferromagnetic ordering, i.e. Slater scheme or electron-correlation, i.e. Mott scheme. …