Epitaxial growth and electronic structure of Ruddlesden-Popper nickelates ($ \mathrm{La}_{n+1}\mathrm{Ni}_{n}\mathrm{O}_{3n+1}, n=1-5 $)

Abstract

We report the epitaxial growth of Ruddlesden-Popper nickelates, $ \mathrm{La}_{n+1}\mathrm{Ni}_{n}\mathrm{O}_{3n+1} $, with $ n $ up to 5 by reactive molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). X-ray diffractions indicate high crystalline quality of these films and transport measurements show strong dependence on the $ n $ values. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) reveals the electronic structure of $ \mathrm{La}_{5}\mathrm{Ni}_{4}\mathrm{O}_{13} $, showing a large hole-like pocket centered around the Brillouin zone corner with a $ (\pi, \pi) $ back-folded copy.