No Arabic abstract
The electric field control of functional properties is a crucial goal in oxide-based electronics. Non-volatile switching between different resistivity or magnetic states in an oxide channel can be achieved through charge accumulation or depletion from an adjacent ferroelectric. However, the way in which charge distributes near the interface between the ferroelectric and the oxide remains poorly known, which limits our understanding of such switching effects. Here we use a first-of-a-kind combination of scanning transmission electron microscopy with electron energy loss spectroscopy, near-total-reflection hard X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, and ab-initio theory to address this issue. We achieve a direct, quantitative, atomic-scale characterization of the polarization-induced charge density changes at the interface between the ferroelectric BiFeO3 and the doped Mott insulator Ca1-xCexMnO3, thus providing insight on how interface-engineering can enhance these switching effects.
A central question in the high temperature cuprate superconductors is the fate of the parent Mott insulator upon charge doping. Here we use scanning tunneling microscopy to investigate the local electronic structure of lightly doped cuprate in the antiferromagnetic insulating regime. We show that the doped charge induces a spectral weight transfer from the high energy Hubbard bands to the low energy in-gap states. With increasing doping, a V-shaped density of state suppression occurs at the Fermi level, which is accompanied by the emergence of checkerboard charge order. The new STM perspective revealed here is the cuprates first become a charge ordered insulator upon doping. Subsequently, with further doping, Fermi surface and high temperature superconductivity grow out of it.
Integrating multiple properties in a single system is crucial for the continuous developments in electronic devices. However, some physical properties are mutually exclusive in nature. Here, we report the coexistence of two seemingly mutually exclusive properties-polarity and two-dimensional conductivity-in ferroelectric Ba$_{0.2}$Sr$_{0.8}$TiO$_3$ thin films at the LaAlO$_3$/Ba$_{0.2}$Sr$_{0.8}$TiO$_3$ interface at room temperature. The polarity of a ~3.2 nm Ba$_{0.2}$Sr$_{0.8}$TiO$_3$ thin film is preserved with a two-dimensional mobile carrier density of ~0.05 electron per unit cell. We show that the electronic reconstruction resulting from the competition between the built-in electric field of LaAlO$_3$ and the polarization of Ba$_{0.2}$Sr$_{0.8}$TiO$_3$ is responsible for this unusual two-dimensional conducting polar phase. The general concept of exploiting mutually exclusive properties at oxide interfaces via electronic reconstruction may be applicable to other strongly-correlated oxide interfaces, thus opening windows to new functional nanoscale materials for applications in novel nanoelectronics.
Detailed understanding of the role of single dopant atoms in host materials has been crucial for the continuing miniaturization in the semiconductor industry as local charging and trapping of electrons can completely change the behaviour of a device. Similarly, as dopants can turn a Mott insulator into a high temperature superconductor, their electronic behaviour at the atomic scale is of much interest. Due to limited time resolution of conventional scanning tunnelling microscopes, most atomic scale studies in these systems focussed on the time averaged effect of dopants on the electronic structure. Here, by using atomic scale shot-noise measurements in the doped Mott insulator Bi$_{2}$Sr$_{2}$CaCu$_{2}$O$_{8+x}$, we visualize sub-nanometer sized objects where remarkable dynamics leads to an enhancement of the tunnelling current noise by at least an order of magnitude. From the position, current and energy dependence we argue that these defects are oxygen dopant atoms that were unaccounted for in previous scanning probe studies, whose local environment leads to charge dynamics that strongly affect the tunnelling mechanism. The unconventional behaviour of these dopants opens up the possibility to dynamically control doping at the atomic scale, enabling the direct visualization of the effect of local charging on e.g. high T$_{text{c}}$ superconductivity.
Topological spintronics aims to exploit the spin-momentum locking in the helical surface states of topological insulators for spin-orbit torque devices. We address a fundamental question that still remains unresolved in this context: does the topological surface state alone produce the largest values of spin-charge conversion efficiency or can the strongly spin-orbit coupled bulk states also contribute significantly? By studying the Fermi level dependence of spin pumping in topological insulator/ferrimagnetic insulator bilayers, we show that the spin Hall conductivity is constant when the Fermi level is tuned across the bulk band gap, consistent with a full bulk band calculation. The results suggest a new perspective, wherein bulk-surface correspondence allows spin-charge conversion to be simultaneously viewed either as coming from the full bulk band, or from spin-momentum locking of the surface state.
How a Mott insulator develops into a weakly coupled metal upon doping is a central question to understanding various emergent correlated phenomena. To analyze this evolution and its connection to the high-$T_c$ cuprates, we study the single-particle spectrum for the doped Hubbard model using cluster perturbation theory on superclusters. Starting from extremely low doping, we identify a heavily renormalized quasiparticle dispersion that immediately develops across the Fermi level, and a weakening polaronic side band at higher binding energy. The quasiparticle spectral weight roughly grows at twice the rate of doping in the low doping regime, but this rate is halved at optimal doping. In the heavily doped regime, we find both strong electron-hole asymmetry and a persistent presence of Mott spectral features. Finally, we discuss the applicability of the single-band Hubbard model to describe the evolution of nodal spectra measured by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) on the single-layer cuprate La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ ($0 le x le 0.15$). This work benchmarks the predictive power of the Hubbard model for electronic properties of high-$T_c$ cuprates.