No Arabic abstract
The time-resolved photoconductance of amorphous and crystalline LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ interfaces, both hosting an interfacial 2-dimensional electron gas, is investigated under irradiation by variable-wavelengths, visible or ultraviolet photons. Unlike bare SrTiO$_3$ single crystals, showing relatively small photoconductance effects, both kinds of interfaces exhibit an intense and highly persistent photoconductance with extraordinarily long characteristic times. The temporal behaviour of the extra photoinduced conductance persisting after light irradiation shows a complex dependence on interface type (whether amorphous or crystalline), sample history and irradiation wavelength. textcolor{black}{The experimental results indicate that different mechanisms of photoexcitation are responsible for the photoconductance of crystalline and amorphous LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ interfaces under visible light. We propose that the response of crystalline samples is mainly due to the promotion of electrons from the valence bands of both SrTiO$_3$ and LaAlO$_3$. This second channel is less relevant in amorphous LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$, where the higher density of point defects plays instead a major role.
LaAlO$_{3}$ and NdGaO$_{3}$ thin films of different thickness have been grown by pulsed laser deposition on TiO$_2$-terminated SrTiO$_{3}$ single crystals and investigated by soft X-ray photoemission spectroscopy. The surface sensitivity of the measurements has been tuned by varying photon energy $h u$ and emission angle $Theta$. In contrast to the core levels of the other elements, the Sr $3d$ line shows an unexpected splitting for higher surface sensitivity, signaling the presence of a second strontium component. From our quantitative analysis we conclude that during the growth process Sr atoms diffuse away from the substrate and segregate at the surface of the heterostructure, possibly forming strontium oxide.
We report the effect of $delta$-doping at LaAlO$_{3}$/SrTiO$_{3}$ interface with LaMnO$_{3}$ monolayers on the photoconducting (PC) state. The PC is realized by exposing the samples to broad band optical radiation of a quartz lamp and 325 and 441 nm lines of a He-Cd laser. Along with the significant modification in electrical transport which drives the pure LaAlO$_{3}$/SrTiO$_{3}$ interface from metal-to-insulator with increasing LaMnO$_{3}$ sub-monolayer thickness, we also observe an enhancement in the photo-response and relaxation time constant. Possible scenario for the PC based on defect-clusters, random potential fluctuations and large lattice relaxation models have been discussed. For pure LaAlO$_{3}$/SrTiO$_{3}$, the photoconductivity appears to originate from inter-band transitions between Ti-derived $3d$ bands which are $e_{g}$ in character and O 2p - Ti $t_{2g}$ hybridized bands. The band structure changes significantly when fractional layers of LaMnO$_{3}$ are introduced. Here the Mn $e_{g}$ bands ($approx1.5$ eV above the Fermi energy) within the photo-conducting gap lead to a reduction in the photo-excitation energy and a gain in overall photoconductivity.
The interface superconductivity in LaAlO$_{3}$-SrTiO$_{3}$ heterostructures reveals a non-monotonic behavior of the critical temperature as a function of the two-dimensional density of charge carriers. We develop a theoretical description of interface superconductivity in strongly polar heterostructures, based on the dielectric function formalism. The density dependence of the critical temperature is calculated accounting for all phonon branches including different types of optical (interface and half-space) and acoustic phonons. The LO- and acoustic-phonon-mediated electron-electron interaction is shown to be the dominating mechanism governing the superconducting phase transition in the heterostructure.
We investigate the possibility of multi-band superconductivity in SrTiO$_{3}$ films and interfaces using a two-dimensional two-band model. In the undoped compound, one of the bands is occupied whereas the other is empty. As the chemical potential shifts due to doping by negative charge carriers or application of an electric field, the second band becomes occupied, giving rise to a strong enhancement of the transition temperature and a sharp feature in the gap functions, which is manifested in the local density of states spectrum. By comparing our results with tunneling experiments in Nb-doped SrTiO$_{3}$, we find that intra-band pairing dominates over inter-band pairing, unlike other known multi-band superconductors. Given the similarities with the value of the transition temperature and with the band structure of LaAlO$_{3}$/SrTiO$_{3}$ heterostructures, we speculate that the superconductivity observed in SrTiO$_{3}$ interfaces may be similar in nature to that of bulk SrTiO$_{3}$, involving multiple bands with distinct electronic occupations.
A structural transition in an ABO$_{3}$ perovskite thin film involving the change of the BO$_{6}$ octahedral rotation pattern can be hidden under the global lattice symmetry imposed by the substrate and often easily overlooked. We carried out high-resolution x-ray diffraction experiments to investigate the structures of epitaxial Ca$_{0.5}$Sr$_{0.5}$IrO$_{3}$ (CSIO) perovskite iridate films grown on the SrTiO$_{3}$ (STO) and GdScO$_{3}$ (GSO) substrates in detail. Although the CSIO/STO film layer displays a global tetragonal lattice symmetry evidenced by the reciprocal space mapping, synchrotron x-ray data indicates that its room temperature structure is monoclinic due to Glazers a$^{+}$a$^{-}$c$^{-}$-type rotation of the IrO$_{6}$ octahedra. In order to accommodate the lower-symmetry structure under the global tetragonal symmetry, the film breaks into four twinned domains, resulting in the splitting of the (half-integer, 0, integer) superlattice reflections. Surprisingly, the splitting of these superlattice reflections decrease with increasing temperature, eventually disappearing at T$_{S}$ = 510(5) K, which signals a structural transition to an orthorhombic phase with a$^{+}$a$^{-}$c$^{0}$ octahedral rotation. In contrast, the CSIO/GSO film displays a stable monoclinic symmetry with a$^{+}$b$^{-}$c$^{-}$ octahedral rotation, showing no structural instability caused by the substrate up to 520 K. Our study illustrates the importance of the symmetry in addition to the lattice mismatch of the substrate in determining the structure of epitaxial thin films.