In-situ probing of the thickness-dependent electronic properties of BaBiO3

Description

Being the parent compound of the high-Tc superconductors BaPb1-xBixO3 and Ba1-xKxBiO3, single crystal BaBiO3 has been studied extensively. Its insulator band gap is thought to be due to a breathing distortion. In recent years, the thickness of BaBiO3 thin films is taken as a new degree of freedom to study its influence on the electronic properties. In the ultra-thin limit, metallicity is predicted because the breathing distortion is suppressed. However, experimentally no insulator-to-metal transition has been observed. Here, in-situ scanning tunneling microscopy studies are performed on BaBiO3 thin films with thicknesses in the range of 4 to 16 unit cells. We observe a modulation of the band gap as a function of thickness.

Period	2 Sept 2020
Event title	CMD2020GEFES: Biennial meeting of the Condensed Matter Divisions of the Spanish Royal Physics Society (RSEF-GEFES) and of the European Physical Society (EPS-CMD)
Event type	Conference
Degree of Recognition	International