Recently, a collaborative effort by research teams led by Hai-Hu Wen at the School of Physics, Nanjing University, and Meng Wang at Sun Yat-Sen University has made new advances in understanding the trilayer Ruddlesden-Popper (RP) nickelate La₄Ni₃O₁₀. Using optical spectroscopy, the researchers found that La₄Ni₃O₁₀ is metallic in the ab plane, but exhibits semiconducting behavior along the c axis. Furthermore, the Ni-d_z² orbital is involved in the opening of the density-wave gap in the intertwined charge- and spin-density-wave state. These results provide important insights into the origin of density-wave order in the RP nickelates. This work was published in the journal Physical Review Letters [Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 076005 (2026)], entitled ‘Highly Anisotropic Charge Dynamics and Spectral Weight Redistribution in the Trilayer Nickelate La₄Ni₃O₁₀’.

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Publication link: https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/5j5t-sfnc