Tailoring LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Interface Metallicity by Oxygen Surface Adsorbates.

Dai, Weitao; Adhikari, Sanjay; Garcia-Castro, Andrés Camilo; Romero, Aldo H; Lee, Hyungwoo; Lee, Jung-Woo; Ryu, Sangwoo; Eom, Chang-Beom et al. · Nano Lett · 2016

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

We report an oxygen surface adsorbates induced metal-insulator transition at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interfaces. The observed effects were attributed to the terminations of surface Al sites and the resultant electron-accepting surface states. By controlling the local oxygen adsorptions, we successfully demonstrated the nondestructive patterning of the interface two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG). The obtained 2DEG structures are stable in air and also robust against general solvent treatments. This study provides new insights into the metal-insulator transition mechanism at the complex oxide interfaces and also a highly efficient technique for tailoring the interface properties.