Toward an artificial Mott insulator: Correlations in confined, high-density electron liquids in SrTiO3

We investigate correlation physics in high-density, two-dimensional electron liquids that reside in narrow SrTiO3 quantum wells. The quantum wells are remotely doped via an interfacial polar discontinuity and the three-dimensional (3D) carrier density is modulated by changing the width of the quantum well. It is shown that even at 3D densities well below one electron per site, short-range Coulomb interactions become apparent in transport, and an insulating state emerges at a critical density. We also discuss the role of disorder in the insulating state.Comment: Accepted for publication in Physical Review B (Rapid Communication

A Large Effective Phonon Magnetic Moment in a Dirac Semimetal

We investigated the magnetoterahertz response of the Dirac semimetal Cd$_3$As$_2$ and observed a particularly low frequency optical phonon, as well as a very prominent and field sensitive cyclotron resonance. As the cyclotron frequency is tuned with field to pass through the phonon, the phonon become circularly polarized as shown by a notable splitting in their response to right- and left-hand polarized light. This splitting can be expressed as an effective phonon magnetic moment that is approximately 2.7 times the Bohr magneton, which is almost four orders of magnitude larger than ab initio calculations predict for phonon magnetic moments in nonmagnetic insulators. This exceedingly large value is due to the coupling of the phonons to the cyclotron motion and is controlled directly by the electron-phonon coupling constant. This field tunable circular-polarization selective coupling provides new functionality for nonlinear optics to create light-induced topological phases in Dirac semimetals.Comment: 15 pages for main text and SI; To appear in Nano Letters (2020

Subband structure of two-dimensional electron gases in SrTiO3

Tunneling between two parallel, two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) in a complex oxide heterostructure containing a large, mobile electron density of ~ 3x10^14 cm^-2 is used to probe the subband structure of the 2DEGs. Temperature-dependent current-voltage measurements are performed on SrTiO3/GdTiO3/SrTiO3 junctions, where GdTiO3 serves as the tunnel barrier, and each interface contains a high-density 2DEG. Resonant tunneling features in the conductance and its derivative occur when subbands on either side of the barrier align in energy as the applied bias is changed, and are used to analyze subband energy spacings in the two 2DEGs. We show that the results agree substantially with recent theoretical predictions for such interfaces.Comment: Submitted to Appl. Phys. Let

Carrier-controlled ferromagnetism in SrTiO3

Magnetotransport and superconducting properties are investigated for uniformly La-doped SrTiO3 films and GdTiO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures, respectively. GdTiO3/SrTiO3 interfaces exhibit a high-density two-dimensional electron gas on the SrTiO3-side of the interface, while for the SrTiO3 films carriers are provided by the dopant atoms. Both types of samples exhibit ferromagnetism at low temperatures, as evidenced by a hysteresis in the magnetoresistance. For the uniformly doped SrTiO3 films, the Curie temperature is found to increase with doping and to coexist with superconductivity for carrier concentrations on the high-density side of the superconducting dome. The Curie temperature of the GdTiO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures scales with the thickness of the SrTiO3 quantum well. The results are used to construct a stability diagram for the ferromagnetic and superconducting phases of SrTiO3.Comment: Revised version that is closer to the published version; Fig. 2 correcte

A heterojunction modulation-doped Mott transistor

A heterojunction Mott field effect transistor (FET) is proposed that consists of an epitaxial channel material that exhibits an electron-correlation-induced Mott metal-to-insulator transition. The Mott material is remotely (modulation) doped with a degenerately doped conventional band insulator. An applied voltage modulates the electron transfer from the doped band insulator to the Mott material and produces transistor action by inducing an insulator-to-metal transition. Materials parameters from rare-earth nickelates and SrTiO3 are used to assess the potential of the "modulation-doped Mott FET" (ModMottFET or MMFET) as a next-generation switch. It is shown that the MMFET is characterized by unique "charge gain" characteristics as well as competitive transconductance, small signal gain and current drive.Comment: The article has been accepted by Journal of Applied Physics. After it is published, it will be found at: http://jap.aip.org