Low temperature near-field fingerprint spectroscopy of 2D electron systems in oxide heterostructures and beyond.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 40360536.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-025-59633-1 and PMC identifier 12075614.
- No licence information is recorded for this record.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
Confined electron systems, such as 2D electron gases (2DEGs), 2D materials, or topological insulators, show great technological promise but their susceptibility to defects often results in nanoscale inhomogeneities with unclear origins. Scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) is useful to investigate buried confined electron systems non-destructively with nanoscale resolution, however, a clear separation of carrier concentration and mobility was so far impossible in s-SNOM. Here, we predict a previously inaccessible characteristic "fingerprint" response of the prototypical LaAlO<sub>3</sub>/SrTiO<sub>3</sub> 2DEG, and verify it using a state-of-the-art tunable narrow-band laser in mid-infrared cryo-s-SNOM at 8 K. Our modeling allows us to separate the influence of carrier concentration and mobility on fingerprint spectra and to characterize 2DEG inhomogeneities on the nanoscale. Finally, we model the surface accumulation layer in doped InAs, to show that our fingerprint spectra are a universal feature and generally applicable to confined electron systems, like topological insulators or stacked van-der-Waals materials.