skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Engineering two-dimensional superconductivity and Rashba spin–orbit coupling in LaAlO3/SrTiO3 quantum wells by selective orbital occupancy

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms7028· OSTI ID:1259677
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [1];  [4];  [5];  [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Institute of Material Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), Catalonia (Spain)
  2. PSL Univ., Paris (France). Lab. of Physics and Material studies
  3. PSL Univ., Paris (France). Lab. of Physics and Material studies
  4. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Materials Science & Technology Division; Univ. Complutense Madrid (Spain)
  5. Institute of Material Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), Catalonia (Spain); Univ. Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain). Dept. of Physics

The discovery of two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) at oxide interfaces—involving electrons in narrow d-bands—has broken new ground, enabling the access to correlated states that are unreachable in conventional semiconductors based on s- and p- electrons. There is a growing consensus that emerging properties at these novel quantum wells—such as 2D superconductivity and magnetism --are intimately connected to specific orbital symmetries in the 2DEG sub-band structure. Here we show that crystal orientation allows selective orbital occupancy, disclosing unprecedented ways to tailor the 2DEG properties. By carrying out electrostatic gating experiments in LaAlO3/SrTiO3 wells of different crystal orientations, we show that the spatial extension and anisotropy of the 2D superconductivity and the Rashba spin–orbit field can be largely modulated by controlling the 2DEG sub-band filling. Such an orientational tuning expands the possibilities for electronic engineering of 2DEGs at LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interfaces.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
RyC-2012-11709; AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1259677
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1265456
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Vol. 6; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 132 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (51)

Intrinsic spin-orbit coupling in superconducting δ -doped SrTiO 3 heterostructures journal August 2012
Giant spin splitting of the two-dimensional electron gas at the surface of SrTiO3 journal October 2014
Theory of t 2 g electron-gas Rashba interactions journal July 2013
Two-Dimensional Superconducting Phase in LaTiO 3 / SrTiO 3 Heterostructures Induced by High-Mobility Carrier Doping journal June 2012
Metallic and Insulating Oxide Interfaces Controlled by Electronic Correlations journal February 2011
Two-Dimensional Electron Gases at LaAlO 3 / SrTiO 3 Interfaces: Orbital Symmetry and Hierarchy Engineered by Crystal Orientation journal October 2014
Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless Transition to the Superconducting State of Heavy-Fermion Superlattices journal August 2012
Gate-Controlled Spin Injection at LaAlO 3 / SrTiO 3 Interfaces journal April 2012
Facetting and (n×1) reconstructions of SrTiO3(110) surfaces journal January 2005
Density and spatial distribution of charge carriers in the intrinsic n -type LaAlO 3 -SrTiO 3 interface journal June 2009
LaAlO3 stoichiometry is key to electron liquid formation at LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interfaces journal August 2013
Electric field control of the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface ground state journal December 2008
Anisotropic two-dimensional electron gas at SrTiO3(110) journal March 2014
Polar Discontinuity Doping of the LaVO 3 / SrTiO 3 Interface journal December 2007
Magnetoresistance in Two-Dimensional Disordered Systems: Effects of Zeeman Splitting and Spin-Orbit Scattering journal August 1981
Tailored surfaces of perovskite oxide substrates for conducted growth of thin films journal January 2014
Crystal orientation effects on electronic and optical properties of wurtzite ZnO/MgZnO quantum well lasers journal January 2007
Electric Field Tuning of the Rashba Effect in the Polar Perovskite Structures journal February 2014
A note on the Maximum Critical Field of High‐Field Superconductors journal September 1962
Orbital Reconstruction and the Two-Dimensional Electron Gas at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Interface journal April 2009
Rashba induced magnetoconductance oscillations in the LaAlO 3 -SrTiO 3 heterostructure journal November 2012
Anisotropy of the superconducting transport properties of the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface journal March 2009
Atomic Control of the SrTiO3 Crystal Surface journal December 1994
Polarization fields of III-nitrides grown in different crystal orientations journal September 2007
Two-dimensional superconductivity at a Mott insulator/band insulator interface LaTiO3/SrTiO3 journal October 2010
Two-dimensional electron gas with universal subbands at the surface of SrTiO3 journal January 2011
High mobility conduction at (110) and (111) LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interfaces journal October 2012
Structure and electronic states on reduced SrTiO3(110) surface observed by scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy journal May 1995
Anisotropic two-dimensional electron gas at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 (110) interface journal May 2013
Conducting interfaces between band insulating oxides: The LaGaO3/SrTiO3 heterostructure journal October 2010
Discovery of superconductivity in KTaO3 by electrostatic carrier doping journal May 2011
Two-dimensional normal-state quantum oscillations in a superconducting heterostructure journal November 2009
Multiple quantum criticality in a two-dimensional superconductor journal April 2013
Transport in ferromagnetic GdTiO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures journal March 2011
Ordering, metastability and phase transitions in two-dimensional systems journal April 1973
Possibility of Vortex-Antivortex Pair Dissociation in Two-Dimensional Superconductors journal April 1979
A high-mobility electron gas at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 heterointerface journal January 2004
Direct k -Space Mapping of the Electronic Structure in an Oxide-Oxide Interface journal June 2013
Superconducting Interfaces Between Insulating Oxides journal August 2007
Crystal orientation effects on electronic properties of wurtzite InGaN/GaN quantum wells journal January 2002
Electrostatically-tuned superconductor-metal-insulator quantum transition at the LaAlO 3 / SrTiO 3 interface journal May 2009
Artificial charge-modulationin atomic-scale perovskite titanate superlattices journal September 2002
Nonlinear Hall effect and multichannel conduction in LaTiO 3 / SrTiO 3 superlattices journal November 2010
A high-mobility two-dimensional electron gas at the spinel/perovskite interface of γ-Al2O3/SrTiO3 journal January 2013
Step formation, faceting, and bunching in atomically flat SrTiO3 (110) surfaces journal December 2007
Enhancement of superconductivity by a parallel magnetic field in two-dimensional superconductors journal August 2011
Tunable Rashba Spin-Orbit Interaction at Oxide Interfaces journal March 2010
Quasi-ideal strontium titanate crystal surfaces through formation of strontium hydroxide journal November 1998
Tuning Spin-Orbit Coupling and Superconductivity at the SrTiO 3 / LaAlO 3 Interface: A Magnetotransport Study journal March 2010
Interfacial dielectric layer as an origin of polarization fatigue in ferroelectric capacitors journal April 2020
Tailored surfaces of perovskite oxide substrates for conducted growth of thin films preprint January 2014

Cited By (40)

Interface Engineering and Emergent Phenomena in Oxide Heterostructures journal August 2018
Diluted Oxide Interfaces with Tunable Ground States journal January 2019
Progress and Perspectives of Atomically Engineered Perovskite Oxide Interfaces for Electronics and Electrocatalysts journal May 2019
Band Structure and Spin–Orbital Texture of the (111)‐KTaO 3 2D Electron Gas journal March 2019
Strong correlations elucidate the electronic structure and phase diagram of LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface journal September 2015
Anomalous orbital structure in a spinel–perovskite interface journal August 2016
Competition between electron pairing and phase coherence in superconducting interfaces journal January 2018
Interface-based tuning of Rashba spin-orbit interaction in asymmetric oxide heterostructures with 3d electrons journal July 2019
Planar Hall effect and anisotropic magnetoresistance in polar-polar interface of LaVO3-KTaO3 with strong spin-orbit coupling journal February 2020
Gap suppression at a Lifshitz transition in a multi-condensate superconductor journal May 2019
Direct imaging of the electron liquid at oxide interfaces journal February 2018
Off-Stoichiometry Driven Carrier Density Variation at the Interface of LaAlO3/SrTiO3 journal May 2017
Effect of Nb concentration on the spin-orbit coupling strength in Nb-doped SrTiO3 epitaxial thin films journal April 2018
Electron—phonon Coupling and the Superconducting Phase Diagram of the LaAlO3—SrTiO3 Interface journal July 2015
Gate dependence of upper critical field in superconducting (110) LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface journal July 2016
Strain-induced indirect-to-direct bandgap transition in an np-type LaAlO 3 /SrTiO 3 (110) superlattice journal January 2019
Research Update: Conductivity and beyond at the LaAlO 3 /SrTiO 3 interface journal June 2016
Electrostatic tuning of magnetism at the conducting (111) (La 0.3 Sr 0.7 )(Al 0.65 Ta 0.35 )/SrTiO 3 interface journal August 2017
Interface chemical and electronic properties of LaAlO 3 /SrVO 3 heterostructures journal February 2018
Kondo effect with tunable spin–orbit interaction in LaTiO 3 /CeTiO 3 /SrTiO 3 heterostructure journal June 2018
Optical second harmonic generation from LaAlO 3 /SrTiO 3 interfaces with different in-plane anisotropies journal December 2019
Physics of SrTiO 3 -based heterostructures and nanostructures: a review journal February 2018
Tunable spin and orbital polarization in SrTiO 3 -based heterostructures journal October 2019
The effect of fabrication conditions on 2DEGs transport characteristics at amorphous-LaAlO 3 /KTaO 3 interfaces journal May 2019
Gate-tunable Rashba spin-orbit coupling and spin polarization at diluted oxide interfaces journal September 2019
Anomalies of upper critical field in the spinel superconductor LiTi 2 O 4 δ journal November 2019
Influence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling on the 0- π transition and Kondo temperature in one-dimensional superconductors journal December 2019
Giant crystalline anisotropic magnetoresistance in nonmagnetic perovskite oxide heterostructures journal April 2017
Effect of disorder on superconductivity and Rashba spin-orbit coupling in LaAlO 3 / SrTiO 3 interfaces journal July 2017
Magnetic two-dimensional electron gases with high Curie temperatures at LaAl O 3 / SrTi O 3 : Fe interfaces journal April 2018
Superconducting fluctuations and characteristic time scales in amorphous WSi journal May 2018
Photoinduced Rashba Spin-to-Charge Conversion via an Interfacial Unoccupied State journal June 2019
Orbital-adapted electronic structure and anisotropic transport in γ Al 2 O 3 / SrTiO 3 heterostructure journal January 2020
Erasable and recreatable two-dimensional electron gas at the heterointerface of SrTiO 3 and a water-dissolvable overlayer journal August 2019
Majorana Fermions in One-Dimensional Structures at LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Oxide Interfaces journal October 2018
Band Structure and Spin–Orbital Texture of the $(111)‐KTaO_{3}$ 2D Electron Gas text January 2019
Superconducting fluctuations and characteristic time scales in amorphous WSi text January 2018
Physics of SrTiO$_3$-based heterostructures and nanostructures: a review text January 2017
Nonreciprocal current in noncentrosymmetric Rashba superconductors text January 2017
Tunable spin and orbital polarization in SrTiO3-based heterostructures text January 2020

Similar Records

Two-Dimensional Electron Gases at LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Interfaces: Orbital Symmetry and Hierarchy Engineered by Crystal Orientation
Journal Article · Tue Oct 07 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Physical Review Letters · OSTI ID:1259677

Nature of superconductor-insulator transition at LaAlO{sub 3}/SrTiO{sub 3} interface
Journal Article · Fri May 15 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · AIP Conference Proceedings · OSTI ID:1259677

Ionic Modulation at the LaAlO3/KTaO3 Interface for Extreme High-Mobility Two-Dimensional Electron Gas
Journal Article · Thu Oct 20 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · Advanced Materials Interfaces · OSTI ID:1259677