Electronic structure and correlations in planar trilayer nickelate Pr4Ni3O8

Haoxiang Li; Peipei Hao; Junjie Zhang; Kyle Gordon; A Garrison Linn; Xinglong Chen; Hong Zheng; Xiaoqing Zhou; J F Mitchell; D S Dessau

doi:10.1126/sciadv.ade4418

Electronic structure and correlations in planar trilayer nickelate Pr₄Ni₃O₈

Sci Adv. 2023 Jan 13;9(2):eade4418. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.ade4418. Epub 2023 Jan 13.

Authors

Haoxiang Li^{1

2}, Peipei Hao¹, Junjie Zhang^{3

4}, Kyle Gordon¹, A Garrison Linn¹, Xinglong Chen³, Hong Zheng³, Xiaoqing Zhou¹, J F Mitchell³, D S Dessau^{1

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.
² Advanced Materials Thrust, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), Guangzhou, Guangdong 511453, China.
³ Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, IL 60439, USA.
⁴ Institute of Crystal Materials and State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong 250100, China.
⁵ Center for Experiments on Quantum Materials, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.

Abstract

The discovery of superconductivity in planar nickelates raises the question of how the electronic structure and correlations of Ni¹⁺ compounds compare to those of the Cu²⁺ cuprate superconductors. Here, we present an angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) study of the trilayer nickelate Pr₄Ni₃O₈, revealing a Fermi surface resembling that of the hole-doped cuprates but with critical differences. Specifically, the main portions of the Fermi surface are extremely similar to that of the bilayer cuprates, with an additional piece that can accommodate additional hole doping. We find that the electronic correlations are about twice as strong in the nickelates and are almost k-independent, indicating that they originate from a local effect, likely the Mott interaction, whereas cuprate interactions are somewhat less local. Nevertheless, the nickelates still demonstrate the strange-metal behavior in the electron scattering rates. Understanding the similarities and differences between these two families of strongly correlated superconductors is an important challenge.