Correlation-induced emergent charge order in metallic vanadium dioxide

Recent progress in the growth and characterization of thin-film VO2 has shown its electronic properties can be significantly modulated by epitaxial matching. To throw new light on the concept of "Mott engineering,"we develop a symmetry-consistent approach to treat structural distortions and electronic correlations in epitaxial VO2 films under strain, and compare our design with direct experimental probes. We find strong evidence for the emergence of correlation-driven charge order deep in the metallic phase, and our results indicate that exotic phases of VO2 can be controlled with epitaxial stabilization.