Imaging and tuning polarity at SrTiO3 domain&nbsp;walls

Frenkel, Yiftach; Haham, Noam; Shperber, Yishai; Bell, Christopher; Xie, Yanwu; Chen, Zhuoyu; Hikita, Yasuyuki; Hwang, Harold Y.; Salje, Ekhard K.  H.; Kalisky, Beena

doi:10.1038/nmat4966

Imaging and tuning polarity at SrTiO₃ domain walls

Journal Article · Mon Sep 18 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Nature Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4966· OSTI ID:1425924

Frenkel, Yiftach ^[1]; Haham, Noam ^[1]; Shperber, Yishai ^[1]; Bell, Christopher ^[2]; Xie, Yanwu ^[3]; Chen, Zhuoyu ^[4]; Hikita, Yasuyuki ^[5]; Hwang, Harold Y. ^[6]; ^[7]; Kalisky, Beena ^[1]

Bar-Ilan Univ., Ramat Gan (Israel). Dept. of Physics and Inst. of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials
Univ. of Bristol (United Kingdom). H. H.Wills Physics Lab.
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Science (SIMES); Zhejiang Univ., Hangzhou (China). Dept. of Physics; Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Geballe Lab. for Advanced Materials, and Dept. of Applied Physics
Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Geballe Lab. for Advanced Materials, and Dept. of Applied Physics
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Science (SIMES)
SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States). Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Science (SIMES); Stanford Univ., CA (United States). Geballe Lab. for Advanced Materials, and Dept. of Applied Physics
Univ. of Cambridge (United Kingdom). Dept. of Earth Sciences; Xiâan Jiaotong Univ., Shaanxi (China). State Key Lab. for Mechanical Behavior of Materials

Electrostatic fields tune the ground state of interfaces between complex oxide materials. Electronic properties, such as conductivity and superconductivity, can be tuned and then used to create and control circuit elements and gate-defined devices. Here in this paper, we show that naturally occurring twin boundaries, with properties that are different from their surrounding bulk, can tune the LaAlO₃/SrTiO₃ interface 2DEG at the nanoscale. In particular, SrTiO₃ domain boundaries have the unusual distinction of remaining highly mobile down to low temperatures, and were recently suggested to be polar. Here we apply localized pressure to an individual SrTiO₃ twin boundary and detect a change in LaAlO₃/SrTiO₃ interface current distribution. Our data directly confirm the existence of polarity at the twin boundaries, and demonstrate that they can serve as effective tunable gates. As the location of SrTiO₃ domain walls can be controlled using external field stimuli, our findings suggest a novel approach to manipulate SrTiO₃-based devices on the nanoscale.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: European Research Council (ERC); Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; Israel Science Foundation (ISF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-76SF00515

OSTI ID:: 1425924

Journal Information:: Nature Materials, Journal Name: Nature Materials Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 16; ISSN 1476-1122

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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