Reversible band structure engineering in semimetal SrIrO₃ films using atomic hydrogen

We report on the atomic hydrogen annealing to in situ manipulate the electronic structures in semimetal SrIrO 3 films. Carriers are found to be effectively doped into epitaxial SrIrO 3 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 SrIrO 3 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.