Quantum confinement induced metal-insulator transition in strongly correlated quantum wells of SrVO3 superlattices

Abstract

Dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) has been employed in conjunction with density functional theory (DFT + DMFT) to investigate the metal-insulator transition (MIT) of strongly correlated 3d electrons due to quantum confinement. We shed light on the microscopic mechanism of the MIT and previously reported anomalous subband mass enhancement, both of which arise as a direct consequence of the quantization of V xz(yz) states in the SrVO3 layers. We therefore show that quantum confinement can sensitively tune the strength of electron correlations, leading the way to applying such approaches in other correlated materials.