2DEGs at Oxide Interfaces

The discovery of a two dimensional electron gas (2DEG) at the interface between two insulating oxides LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 has attracted significant interest due to possible applications in all-oxide electronic devices. Stimulated by this discovery density-functional calculations are performed to understand properties of the 2DEG and explore new functionalities which may be realized using the 2DEGs. In particular we have predicted that the 2DEG confinement can be explained by the SrTiO3 conduction band bending and the formation of metal induced gap states in the band gap of SrTiO3. We have explored all-oxide heterostructures incorporating ferroelectric constituents. We found that the polar discontinuity in these heterostructures may lead to the formation of a 2DEG switchable between two conduction states as controlled by ferroelectric polarization orientation. We have also proposed a method to achieve a spin-polarized 2DEG by employing a ferromagnetic insulator, as one of the constituents in the oxide heterostructure.

We have also been involved in a long-standing collaboration with experimentalists at University of Wisconsin-Madison to elucidate factors controlling properties of 2DEGs. Our collaborative research has discovered that the formation of 2DEGs at complex oxide interfaces is affected by electronic correlations which make the interface conducting or insulting depending on their strength. We have also discovered that the critical thickness of the LaAlO3 layer and carrier concentration of the 2DEG can be tailored by epitaxial strain through electric polarization induced in SrTiO3. Remakably, a two-dimenisonal hole gas (2DHG) has been discovered in a  trylayer SrTiO3/LaAlO3/SrTiO3 system coexisting with a 2DEG. These new properties and functionalities may be interesting for device applications.

References
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  2. Kyung Song, Sangwoo Ryu, Hyungwoo Lee, Tula R. Paudel, Christoph T. Koch, Bumsu Park, Ja Kyung Lee, Si-Young Choi, Young-Min Kim, Jong Chan Kim, Hu Young Jeong, Mark S. Rzchowski, Evgeny Y. Tsymbal, Chang-Beom Eom, and Sang Ho Oh, “Direct imaging of the electron liquid at oxide interfaces,” Nature Nanotechnology 13, 198–203 (2018).
  3. T. R. Paudel and E. Y. Tsymbal, “Prediction of a mobile two-dimensional electron gas at the LaScO3/BaSnO3 (001) interface,” Physical Review B 96, 245423 (2017).
  4. S. J. Betancourt, T. Paudel, E. Y. Tsymbal, and J. P. Velev, “Spin-polarized two-dimensional electron gas at GdTiO3/SrTiO3 interfaces: Insight from first-principles calculations,” Physical Review B 96, 045113 (2017).
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  6. C. W. Bark, P. Sharma, Y. Wang, S. H. Beak, S. Lee, S. Ryu, C. M. Folkman, T. R. Paudel, A. Kumar, S. V. Kalinin, A. Sokolov, E. Y. Tsymbal, M. S. Rzchowski, A. Gruverman, and C. B. Eom, “Switchable induced polarization in LaAlO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures,” Nano Letters 12, 1765–1771 (2012).
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Atomic structure of the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface

Atomic structure of the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface.

 

Effect of ferroelectric polarization on 2DEG at the oxide interface.

 

Appearance of 2DHG and 2DEG in  SrTiO3/LaAlO3/SrTiO3 system.

 

Strain effect on 2DEG at LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface.