TUNING AND IMAGING THE ELECTRIC PROPERTIES OF TWO-DIMENSIONAL ELECTRON SYSTEMS AT THE LaAIO3/SrTiO3 INTERFACES

Abstract

The possibility of growing epitaxial interfaces with atomic precision leads to unexpected functionalities at the interfaces between perovskite oxide insulators. In particular, the two-dimensional electron gas emerging at the interface between SrTiO3 (STO) and LaAlO3 (LAO), can be tuned to produce a very rich phase diagram, including magnetism, superconductivity and orbital reconstructions. In this thesis, STO-based low dimensional electron systems have been studied experimentally or/and theoretically, with transport measurement being the principal experimental method. By growing multilayer structures, using certain different orientated crystal substrates, or applying electric field on perovskite oxide ultrathin films grown on STO, the physical properties of these systems could be engineered. Analytical or density functional theory calculation is also used to explain the experimental data. These works form the interfacial engineering, tuning and imaging electronic properties of two-dimensional electron systems built on STO. This makes it possible and paves a way to the STO-based oxide electronics.