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 (7)

• Magnetic effects at the interface between nonmagnetic oxides
• Why Some Interfaces Cannot be Sharp
• The role of oxygen vacancies in SrTiO3 at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface
• 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 (16)

• Instability, Intermixing and Electronic Structure at the Epitaxial LaAlO3/SrTiO3(001) Heterojunction
• Tailoring a two-dimensional electron gas at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 (001) interface by epitaxial strain
• Origin of two-dimensional electron gases at oxide interfaces: insights from theory
• Polarity-induced oxygen vacancies at LaAlO3|SrTiO3 interfaces
• Polar catastrophe and electronic reconstructions at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface: evidence from optical second harmonic generation
• Experimental study of the interfacial cobalt oxide in Co3O4/a-Al2O3(0001) epitaxial films
• Charge transfer driven emergent phenomena in oxide heterostructures
• Oxide superlattices with alternating p and n interfaces
• Ferroelectric Dead Layer Driven by a Polar Interface
• A First-Principles Study of the Electronic Reconstructions of LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Heterointerfaces and Their Variants
• Enhanced persistent photoconductivity in $\delta$-doped LaAlO${}_3$/SrTiO${}_3$ heterostructures
• Termination control of electronic phases in oxide thin films and interfaces: LaAlO3/SrTiO3(001)
• Electronic charge redistribution in LaAlO${}_3$(001) thin films deposited at SrTiO${}_3$(001) substrate: First principles analysis and the role of stoichiometry
• Electronic Phases and Phase Separation in the Hubbard-Holstein Model of a Polar Interface
• Lattice screening of the polar catastrophe and hidden in-plane polarization in KNbO${}_3$/BaTiO${}_3$ interfaces
• Interface control of ferroelectricity in LaNiO3-BaTiO3 superlattices