Dramatic Mobility Enhancements in Doped SrTiO3 Thin Films by Defect Management

We report bulk-quality n-type SrTiO3 (n-SrTiO3) thin films fabricated by pulsed laser deposition, with electron mobility as high as 6600 cm2 V-1 s-1 at 2 K and carrier density as low as 2.0 x 10^18cm-3 (~ 0.02 at. %), far exceeding previous pulsed laser deposition films. This result stems from precise strontium and oxygen vacancy defect chemistry management, providing a general approach for defect control in complex oxide heteroepitaxy.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

Temperature Dependent Polarity Reversal in Au/Nb:SrTiO3 Schottky Junctions

We have observed temperature-dependent reversal of the rectifying polarity in Au/Nb:SrTiO3 Schottky junctions. By simulating current-voltage characteristics we have found that the permittivity of SrTiO3 near the interface exhibits temperature dependence opposite to that observed in the bulk, significantly reducing the barrier width. At low temperature, tunneling current dominates the junction transport due both to such barrier narrowing and to suppressed thermal excitations. The present results demonstrate that novel junction properties can be induced by the interface permittivity

Fermi surface and superconductivity in low-density high-mobility {\delta}-doped SrTiO3

The electronic structure of low-density n-type SrTiO3 delta-doped heterostructures is investigated by angular dependent Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations. In addition to a controllable crossover from a three- to two-dimensional Fermi surface, clear beating patterns for decreasing dopant layer thicknesses are found. These indicate the lifting of the degeneracy of the conduction band due to subband quantization in the two-dimensional limit. Analysis of the temperature-dependent oscillations shows that similar effective masses are found for all components, associated with the splitting of the light electron pocket. The dimensionality crossover in the superconducting state is found to be distinct from the normal state, resulting in a rich phase diagram as a function of dopant layer thickness.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, submitted for publicatio

Temperature dependent magnetotransport around ν\nu= 1/2 in ZnO heterostructures

The sequence of prominent fractional quantum Hall states up to $\nu$=5/11 around $\nu$=1/2 in a high mobility two-dimensional electron system confined at oxide heterointerface (ZnO) is analyzed in terms of the composite fermion model. The temperature dependence of \Rxx oscillations around $\nu$=1/2 yields an estimation of the composite fermion effective mass, which increases linearly with the magnetic field. This mass is of similar value to an enhanced electron effective mass, which in itself arises from strong electron interaction. The energy gaps of fractional states and the temperature dependence of \Rxx at $\nu$=1/2 point to large residual interactions between composite fermions.Comment: 5 pages, 4 Figure

Dominant mobility modulation by the electric field effect at the LaAlO_3 / SrTiO_3 interface

Caviglia et al. [Nature (London) 456, 624 (2008)] have found that the superconducting LaAlO_3 / SrTiO_3 interface can be gate modulated. A central issue is to determine the principal effect of the applied electric field. Using magnetotransport studies of a gated structure, we find that the mobility variation is almost five times as large as the sheet carrier density. Furthermore, superconductivity can be suppressed at both positive and negative gate bias. These results indicate that the relative disorder strength strongly increases across the superconductor-insulator transition.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Characterization of the Schottky Barrier in SrRuO3/Nb:SrTiO3 Junctions

Internal photoemission spectroscopy was used to determine the Schottky barrier height in rectifying SrRuO3/Nb-doped SrTiO3 junctions for 0.01 wt % and 0.5 wt % Nb concentrations. Good agreement was obtained with the barrier height deduced from capacitance-voltage measurements, provided that a model of the nonlinear permittivity of SrTiO3 was incorporated in extrapolating the built-in potential, particularly for high Nb concentrations. Given the generic polarizability of perovskites under internal/external electric fields, internal photoemission provides a valuable independent probe of the interface electronic structure.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figure

Intrinsic spin-orbit coupling in superconducting {\delta}-doped SrTiO3 heterostructures

We report the violation of the Pauli limit due to intrinsic spin-orbit coupling in SrTiO3 heterostructures. Via selective doping down to a few nanometers, a two-dimensional superconductor is formed, geometrically suppressing orbital pair-breaking. The spin-orbit scattering is exposed by the robust in-plane superconducting upper critical field, exceeding the Pauli limit by a factor of 4. Transport scattering times several orders of magnitude higher than for conventional thin film superconductors enables a new regime to be entered, where spin-orbit coupling effects arise non-perturbatively.Comment: main text 4 pages with 4 figures, supplemental material 2 pages with 2 figure, submitted for publicatio

Electron scattering times in ZnO based polar heterostructures

The remarkable historic advances experienced in condensed matter physics have been enabled through the continued exploration and proliferation of increasingly richer and cleaner material systems. In this work, we report on the scattering times of charge carriers confined in state-of-the-art MgZnO/ZnO heterostructures displaying electron mobilities in excess of 10⁶ cm²/V s. Through an examination of low field quantum oscillations, we obtain the effective mass of charge carriers, along with the transport and quantum scattering times. These times compare favorably with high mobility AlGaAs/GaAs heterostructures, suggesting the quality of MgZnO/ZnO heterostructures now rivals that of traditional semiconductors

Temperature-Dependent Magnetotransport around ν=1/2 in ZnO Heterostructures

The sequence of prominent fractional quantum Hall states up to ν = 5/11 around ν = 1/2 in a high-mobility two-dimensional electron system confined at oxide heterointerface (ZnO) is analyzed in terms of the composite fermion model. The temperature dependence of R_(xx) oscillations around ν = 1/2 yields an estimation of the composite fermion effective mass, which increases linearly with the magnetic field. This mass is of similar value to an enhanced electron effective mass, which in itself arises from strong electron interaction. The energy gaps of fractional states and the temperature dependence of R_(xx) at ν = 1/2 point to large residual interactions between composite fermions

Temperature-Dependent Magnetotransport around ν=1/2 in ZnO Heterostructures

The sequence of prominent fractional quantum Hall states up to ν = 5/11 around ν = 1/2 in a high-mobility two-dimensional electron system confined at oxide heterointerface (ZnO) is analyzed in terms of the composite fermion model. The temperature dependence of R_(xx) oscillations around ν = 1/2 yields an estimation of the composite fermion effective mass, which increases linearly with the magnetic field. This mass is of similar value to an enhanced electron effective mass, which in itself arises from strong electron interaction. The energy gaps of fractional states and the temperature dependence of R_(xx) at ν = 1/2 point to large residual interactions between composite fermions