Reversible band structure engineering in semimetal SrIrO3 films using atomic hydrogen

Abstract

We report on the atomic hydrogen annealing to in situ manipulate the electronic structures in semimetal SrIrO3 films. Carriers are found to be effectively doped into epitaxial SrIrO3 films by atomic hydrogen annealing without degrading the lattice structure, as revealed by transport and structural measurements. Using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, the low-lying hole bands exhibit a nearly rigid band shift toward the higher binding energy upon atomic hydrogen annealing, which can be further restored by the ozone annealing. Unlike the typical in situ alkali-metal surface doping method, our atomic-hydrogen-treated SrIrO3 films are stable in air, which warrants ex situ characterizations. Our work shows a reversible and effective in situ carrier doping method to explore exotic phases in strongly correlated systems, such as the potential superconductivity in iridates.