Intrinsic origin of the two-dimensional electron gas at polar oxide interfaces

2011/12/15 by M. L. Reinle-Schmitt, Mathilde Reinle-Schmitt, Claudia Cancellieri +25
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Electronic and Structural Properties of Oxides #FOS: Physical sciences #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Semiconductor materials and devices #cond-mat.mtrl-sci

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1112.3532

4 pages, 3 figures

arxiv created 2011/12/15 · openalex publication_date 2011/12/15 · arxiv updated 2011/12/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

The predictions of the polar catastrophe scenario to explain the occurrence of a metallic interface in heterostructures of the solid solution(LaAlO₃)_x(SrTiO₃)_1-x (LASTO:x) grown on (001) SrTiO₃ were investigated as a function of film thickness and x. The films are insulating for the thinnest layers, but above a critical thickness, t_c, the interface exhibits a constant finite conductivity which depends in a predictable manner on x. It is shown that t_c scales with the strength of the built-in electric field of the polar material, and is immediately understandable in terms of an electronic reconstruction at the nonpolar-polar interface. These results thus conclusively identify the polar-catastrophe model as the intrinsic origin of the doping at this polar oxide interface.

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