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Register a new userLocally enhanced conductivity due to the tetragonal domain structure in LaAlO$_{3}$/SrTiO$_{3}$ heterointerfaces
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The ability to control materials properties through interface engineering is demonstrated by the appearance of conductivity at the interface of certain insulators, most famously the {001} interface of the band insulators LaAlO$_{3}$ and TiO$_{2}$-terminated SrTiO$_{3}$ (STO). Transport and other measurements in this system show a plethora of diverse physical phenomena. To better understand the interface conductivity, we used scanning superconducting quantum interference device microscopy to image the magnetic field locally generated by current in an interface. At low temperature, we found that the current flowed in conductive narrow paths oriented along the crystallographic axes, embedded in a less conductive background. The configuration of these paths changed on thermal cycling above the STO cubic-to-tetragonal structural transition temperature, implying that the local conductivity is strongly modified by the STO tetragonal domain structure. The interplay between substrate domains and the interface provides an additional mechanism for understanding and controlling the behaviour of heterostructures.
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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.
Using a combination of vertical transport measurements across and lateral transport measurements along the LaAlO$_{3}$/SrTiO$_{3}$ heterointerface, we demonstrate that significant potential barrier lowering and band bending are the cause of interfacial metallicity. Barrier lowering and enhanced band bending extends over 2.5 nm into LaAlO$_{3}$ as well as SrTiO$_{3}$. We explain origins of high-temperature carrier saturation, lower carrier concentration, and higher mobility in the sample with the thinnest LaAlO$_{3}$ film on a SrTiO$_{3}$ substrate. Lateral transport results suggest that parasitic interface scattering centers limit the low-temperature lateral electron mobility of the metallic channel.
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.
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.
By combined top- and backgating, we explore the correlation of superconductivity with band filling and electron confinement at the LaAlO$_3$-SrTiO$_3$ interface. We find that the top- and backgate voltages have distinctly different effects on the superconducting critical temperature, implying that the confining potential well has a profound effect on superconductivity. We investigate the origin of this behavior by comparing the gate-dependence of $T_c$ to the corresponding evolution of the band filling with gate voltage. For several backgate voltages, we observe maximum $T_c$ to consistently coincide with a kink in tuning the band filling for high topgate voltage. Self-consistent Schrodinger-Poisson calculations relate this kink to a Lifshitz transition of the second $d_{xy}$ subband. These results establish a major role for confinement-induced subbands in the phase diagram of SrTiO$_3$ surface states, and establish gating as a means to control the relative energy of these states.
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