Beyond the standard model: imaging the itinerant-to-localized transmutation of electrons across the metal-to-insulator transition in V2O3

The most familiar physical property of materials is their ability to conduct (metals) or not (insulators) electric current. The conductivity of metals increases when the temperature decreases. Thus, copper conducts ten times better the current at -200°C than at 400°C. But for V₂O₃, a metal at room temperature, the conductivity drops sharply by a factor of a million when the temperature falls below -113°C. It becomes a so-called Mott insulator! How to explain this astonishing transition? This work imaged for the first time how the itinerant, wave-like electrons in the metallic phase of V2O3 localize across the Mott metal-insulator transition.