No Arabic abstract
The oxide heterostructure LaAlO3/SrTiO3 supports a two-dimensional electron liquid with a variety of competing phases including magnetism, superconductivity and weak antilocalization due to Rashba spin-orbit coupling. Further confinement of this 2D electron liquid to the quasi-one-dimensional regime can provide insight into the underlying physics of this system and reveal new behavior. Here we describe magnetotransport experiments on narrow LaAlO3/SrTiO3 structures created by a conductive atomic force microscope lithography technique. Four-terminal local transport measurements on ~10-nm-wide Hall bar structures yield longitudinal resistances that are comparable to the resistance quantum h/e2 and independent of the channel length. Large nonlocal resistances (as large as 10^4 ohms) are observed in some but not all structures with separations between current and voltage that are large compared to the 2D mean-free path. The nonlocal transport is strongly suppressed by the onset of superconductivity below ~200 mK. The origin of these anomalous transport signatures is not understood, but may arise from coherent transport defined by strong spin-orbit coupling and/or magnetic interactions.
The magnetoresistance as a function of temperature and field for atomically flat interfaces between 8 unit cells of LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 is reported. Anomalous anisotropic behavior of the magnetoresistance is observed below 30 K for superconducting samples with carrier concentration of 3.5times10^13 cm^-2 . We associate this behavior to a magnetic order formed at the interface.
Nanoscale control of the metal-insulator transition in LaAlO3/ SrTiO3 heterostructures can be achieved using local voltages applied by a conductive atomic-force microscope probe. One proposed mechanism for the writing and erasing process involves an adsorbed H2O layer at the top LaAlO3 surface. In this picture, water molecules dissociates into OH- and H+ which are then selectively removed by a biased AFM probe. To test this mechanism, writing and erasing experiments are performed in a vacuum AFM using various gas mixtures. Writing ability is suppressed in those environments where H2O is not present. The stability of written nanostructures is found to be strongly associated with the ambient environment. The self-erasure process in air can be strongly suppressed by creating a modest vacuum or replacing the humid air with dry inert gas. These experiments provide strong constraints for theories of both the writing process as well as the origin of interfacial conductance.
Resistance as a function of temperature down to 20mK and magnetic fields up to 18T for various carrier concentrations is measured for nanowires made from the SrTiO3/LaAlO3 interface using a hard mask shadow deposition technique. The narrow width of the wires (of the order of 50nm) allows us to separate out the magnetic effects from the dominant superconducting ones at low magnetic fields. At this regime hysteresis loops are observed along with the superconducting transition. From our data analysis we find that the magnetic order probed by the giant magnetoresistance (GMR) effect vanishes at TCurie = 954 mK. This order is not a simple ferromagnetic state but consists of domains with opposite magnetization having a preferred in-plane orientation.
Reports of emergent conductivity, superconductivity, and magnetism at oxide interfaces have helped to fuel intense interest in their rich physics and technological potential. Here we employ magnetic force microscopy to search for room-temperature magnetism in the well-studied LaAlO3/SrTiO3 system. Using electrical top gating to deplete electrons from the oxide interface, we directly observe an in-plane ferromagnetic phase with sharply defined domain walls. Itinerant electrons, introduced by a top gate, align antiferromagnetically with the magnetization, at first screening and then destabilizing it as the conductive state is reached. Subsequent depletion of electrons results in a new, uncorrelated magnetic pattern. This newfound control over emergent magnetism at the interface between two non-magnetic oxides portends a number of important technological applications.
Heterostructures made of transition metal oxides are new tailor-made materials which are attracting much attention. We have constructed a 6-band k.p Hamiltonian and used it within the envelope function method to calculate the subband structure of a variety of LaAlO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures. By use of density functional calculations, we determine the k.p parameters describing the conduction band edge of SrTiO3: the three effective mass parameters, L=0.6104 eV AA^2, M=9.73 eV AA^2, N=-1.616 eV AA^2, the spin orbit splitting Delta_SO=28.5 meV and the low temperature tetragonal distortion energy splitting Delta_T=2.1 meV. For confined systems we find strongly anisotropic non-parabolic subbands. As an application we calculate bands, density of states and magnetic energy levels and compare the results to Shubnikov-de Haas quantum oscillations observed in high magnetic fields. For typical heterostructures we find that electric field strength at the interface of F = 0.1 meV/AA for a carrier density of 7.2 10^{12} cm^-2 results in a subband structure that is similar to experimental results.