DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Direct observation of a two-dimensional hole gas at oxide interfaces

Journal Article · · Nature Materials
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [1];  [4];  [3]; ORCiD logo [7];  [8];  [3];  [5];  [2];  [1]
  1. Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
  2. Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States). Dept. of Physics
  3. Sungkyunkwan Univ., Suwon (Republic of Korea). Dept. of Energy Science
  4. The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States). Dept. of Physics
  5. Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE (United States). Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
  6. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS), X-Ray Science Division
  7. Sungkyunkwan Univ., Suwon (Republic of Korea). Dept. of Energy Science; Pohang Univ. of Science and Technology (POSTECH) (Korea, Republic of). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
  8. The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States). Dept. of Physics; The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States). Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering

The discovery of a two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface has resulted in the observation of many properties not present in conventional semiconductor heterostructures, and so become a focal point for device applications. Its counterpart, the two-dimensional hole gas (2DHG), is expected to complement the 2DEG. However, although the 2DEG has been widely observed, the 2DHG has proved elusive. Here in this paper we demonstrate a highly mobile 2DHG in epitaxially grown SrTiO3/LaAlO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures. Using electrical transport measurements and in-line electron holography, we provide direct evidence of a 2DHG that coexists with a 2DEG at complementary heterointerfaces in the same structure. First-principles calculations, coherent Bragg rod analysis and depth-resolved cathodoluminescence spectroscopy consistently support our finding that to eliminate ionic point defects is key to realizing a 2DHG. Lastly, the coexistence of a 2DEG and a 2DHG in a single oxide heterostructure provides a platform for the exciting physics of confined electron-hole systems and for developing applications.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357; FG02-06ER46327
OSTI ID:
1469800
Journal Information:
Nature Materials, Journal Name: Nature Materials Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 17; ISSN 1476-1122
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (55)

Bose?Einstein Condensation of Excitons in Bilayer Electron Systems journal March 2005
Strain on ferroelectric thin films: Example of Pb(Zr1−xTix)O3 journal October 2009
Towards full-resolution inline electron holography journal August 2014
A flux-preserving non-linear inline holography reconstruction algorithm for partially coherent electrons journal January 2008
A high-mobility electron gas at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 heterointerface journal January 2004
Atomic-scale imaging of nanoengineered oxygen vacancy profiles in SrTiO3 journal August 2004
Bose–Einstein condensation of excitons in bilayer electron systems journal December 2004
Electric field control of the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface ground state journal December 2008
Polaronic metal state at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface journal January 2016
Room-temperature electronically-controlled ferromagnetism at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface journal September 2014
Why some interfaces cannot be sharp journal January 2006
Electronically coupled complementary interfaces between perovskite band insulators journal June 2006
Magnetic effects at the interface between non-magnetic oxides journal June 2007
Emergent phenomena at oxide interfaces journal January 2012
Extreme mobility enhancement of two-dimensional electron gases at oxide interfaces by charge-transfer-induced modulation doping journal June 2015
Highly efficient and tunable spin-to-charge conversion through Rashba coupling at oxide interfaces journal August 2016
Sketched oxide single-electron transistor journal April 2011
Reducing Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and field-free spin-orbit torque switching in synthetic antiferromagnets journal May 2021
Electronic structure of AlFeN films exhibiting crystallographic orientation change from c- to a-axis with Fe concentrations and annealing effect journal February 2020
Depth-resolved subsurface defects in chemically etched SrTiO3 journal March 2009
Anomalous expansion of the copper-apical-oxygen distance in superconducting cuprate bilayers journal April 2010
Tailoring a two-dimensional electron gas at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 (001) interface by epitaxial strain journal February 2011
Applications of depth-resolved cathodoluminescence spectroscopy journal April 2012
The limits of ultrahigh-resolution x-ray mapping: estimating uncertainties in thin-film and interface structures determined by phase retrieval methods journal April 2012
Optical identification of oxygen vacancy formation at SrTiO 3 –(Ba,Sr)TiO 3 heterostructures journal May 2014
Projector augmented-wave method journal December 1994
Efficient iterative schemes for ab initio total-energy calculations using a plane-wave basis set journal October 1996
From ultrasoft pseudopotentials to the projector augmented-wave method journal January 1999
Excitonic binding in coupled quantum wells journal May 2003
Structural and electronic properties of n -doped and p -doped Sr Ti O 3 journal December 2004
Charge localization or itineracy at LaAlO3∕SrTiO3 interfaces Hole polarons, oxygen vacancies, and mobile electrons journal July 2006
Charge compensation and mixed valency in LaAlO 3 ∕ SrTiO 3 heterointerfaces studied by the FLAPW method journal November 2006
Coulomb drag and spin drag in the presence of spin-orbit coupling journal January 2007
Electron-hole liquids in transition-metal oxide heterostructures journal August 2010
Polarity-induced oxygen vacancies at LaAlO 3 ∕ SrTiO 3 interfaces journal October 2010
Local probing of coupled interfaces between two-dimensional electron and hole gases in oxide heterostructures by variable-temperature scanning tunneling spectroscopy journal July 2012
Influence of atomic termination on the LaAlO 3 /SrTiO 3 interfacial polar rearrangement journal July 2013
First-principles study of the mobility of SrTiO 3 journal December 2014
Tunable Rashba Spin-Orbit Interaction at Oxide Interfaces journal March 2010
Parallel Electron-Hole Bilayer Conductivity from Electronic Interface Reconstruction journal April 2010
High Mobility in LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Heterostructures: Origin, Dimensionality, and Perspectives journal May 2007
Near-nanoscale-resolved energy band structure of LaNiO3/La2/3Sr1/3MnO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures and their interfaces
  • Asel, Thaddeus J.; Gao, Hantian; Heinl, Tyler J.
  • Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B, Nanotechnology and Microelectronics: Materials, Processing, Measurement, and Phenomena, Vol. 33, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1116/1.4922270
journal June 2015
Tunable Quasi-Two-Dimensional Electron Gases in Oxide Heterostructures journal September 2006
Superconducting Interfaces Between Insulating Oxides journal August 2007
Oxide Interfaces--An Opportunity for Electronics journal March 2010
Two-Dimensional Electron Gases at Oxide Interfaces journal November 2008
Polaronic metal state at the LaAlO 3 /SrTiO 3 interface text January 2016
Electron-Hole Liquids in Transition Metal Oxide Heterostructures text January 2010
Tailoring a two-dimensional electron gas at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 (001) interface by epitaxial strain text January 2010
Room-Temperature Electronically-Controlled Ferromagnetism at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Interface text January 2013
First-principles study of the mobility of SrTiO$_3$ text January 2014
Highly efficient and tuneable spin-to-charge conversion through Rashba coupling at oxide interfaces text January 2016
Bose-Einstein Condensation of Excitons in Bilayer Electron Systems text January 2004
Why Some Interfaces Cannot be Sharp text January 2005
Electronically coupled complementary interfaces between perovskite band insulators text January 2006

Cited By (33)

Epitaxial Oxides on Semiconductors: From Fundamentals to New Devices journal July 2019
Interface Engineering and Emergent Phenomena in Oxide Heterostructures journal August 2018
Conductive Oxide Interfaces for Field Effect Devices journal June 2019
Stimulating Oxide Heterostructures: A Review on Controlling SrTiO 3 ‐Based Heterointerfaces with External Stimuli journal August 2019
Formation and Tuning of 2D Electron Gas in Perovskite Heterostructures journal December 2019
Electric‐Field Control of Dirac Two‐Dimensional Electron Gas in PbTe/CdTe Heterostructures journal January 2019
A termination-insensitive and robust electron gas at the heterointerface of two complex oxides journal September 2019
Real-space charge-density imaging with sub-ångström resolution by four-dimensional electron microscopy journal October 2019
Heterogeneous integration of single-crystalline complex-oxide membranes journal February 2020
Epitaxial growth and layer-transfer techniques for heterogeneous integration of materials for electronic and photonic devices journal October 2019
Inhibition of unintentional extra carriers by Mn valence change for high insulating devices journal April 2016
Strain-driven carrier-type switching of surface two-dimensional electron and hole gases in a KTaO 3 thin film journal January 2018
Carrier dynamics in highly excited TlInS 2 : evidence of 2D electron–hole charge separation at parallel layers journal January 2019
Strain-induced indirect-to-direct bandgap transition in an np-type LaAlO 3 /SrTiO 3 (110) superlattice journal January 2019
Quantum confined two-dimensional electron/hole gas switching by facet orientation of perovskite oxides journal January 2018
Design of two-dimensional electron gas systems via polarization discontinuity from large-scale first-principles calculations journal January 2018
Heterointerface engineering for enhancing the electrochemical performance of solid oxide cells journal January 2020
Two-dimensional polar metals in KNbO 3 /BaTiO 3 superlattices: first-principle calculations journal January 2019
Scavenging of oxygen from SrTiO 3 during oxide thin film deposition and the formation of interfacial 2DEGs journal March 2017
The role of oxide interfaces in highly confined electronic and ionic conductors journal January 2019
Coexistence of quasi-two dimensional electron and hole gas in a single tier Ca 0.5 TaO 3 /SrTiO 3 oxide heterostructure journal July 2019
Engineering antiphase boundaries in epitaxial SrTiO 3 to achieve forming free memristive devices journal October 2019
Electron mobility in oxide heterostructures journal June 2018
Transport properties of nonpolar CaZrO 3 /SrTiO 3 heterointerfaces from scattering analysis journal August 2018
Optical second harmonic generation from LaAlO 3 /SrTiO 3 interfaces with different in-plane anisotropies journal December 2019
A spin–orbit playground: surfaces and interfaces of transition metal oxides journal November 2018
A review of molecular beam epitaxy of ferroelectric BaTiO 3 films on Si, Ge and GaAs substrates and their applications journal June 2015
Strong spin-orbit coupling and magnetism in (111) ( La 0.3 Sr 0.7 ) ( Al 0.65 Ta 0.35 ) O 3 / SrTiO 3 journal August 2018
Theoretical prediction of Weyl fermions in the paramagnetic electride Y 2 C journal June 2019
Influence of SrTiO 3 capping layer on the charge transport at the interfaces of SrTiO 3 / LaAlO 3 / SrTiO 3 (100) heterostructure journal November 2018
Formation of two-dimensional electron and hole gases at the interface of half-Heusler semiconductors journal June 2019
How heteroepitaxy occurs on strontium titanate journal April 2019
A polarization-induced 2D hole gas in undoped gallium nitride quantum wells journal September 2019