Fundamental asymmetry in interfacial electronic reconstruction between insulating oxides

Abstract

We present an ab initio study of the (001) interfaces between two insulating perovskites, the polar LaAlO3 and the nonpolar SrTiO3. We observe an insulating-to-metallic transition above a critical LaAlO3 thickness. We explain that the high conductivity observed at the TiO2 /LaO interface and the lack of similar conductivity at the SrO/AlO2 interface are inherent in the atomic geometry of the system. A large interfacial hopping matrix element between cations causes the formation of a bound electron state at the TiO2 /LaO interface. This mechanism for the formation of interfacial bound states suggests a robust means for tuning conductivities at various oxide heterointerfaces.

4 pages, 3 figures and 1 table

References in corpus (5)

• Magnetic effects at the interface between nonmagnetic oxides
• High Mobility in LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Heterostructures: Origin, Dimensionality and Perspectives
• Origin of charge density at LaAlO3-on-SrTiO3 hetero-interfaces; possibility of intrinsic doping
• Electronic structure induced reconstruction and magnetic ordering at the LaAlO${}_3|$SrTiO${}_3$ interface
• Surface Effects on Oxide Heterostructures

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Polar catastrophe and electronic reconstructions at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface: evidence from optical second harmonic generation
• Oxide superlattices with alternating p and n interfaces