The surfaces of metal oxides often are reconstructed with a geometry and composition that is considerably different from a simple termination of the bulk. Such structures can also be viewed as ultrathin films, epitaxed on a substrate. Here, the reconstructions of the SrTiO3 (110) surface are studied combining scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), transmission electron diffraction, and X-ray abso...

Mn-doped SrTiO(3.0), when synthesized free of impurities, is a paramagnetic insulator with interesting dielectric properties. Since delocalized charge carriers are known to promote ferromagnetism in a large number of systems via diverse mechanisms, we have looked for the possibility of any intrinsic, spontaneous magnetization by simultaneous doping of Mn ions and electrons into SrTiO3 via oxyge...

The Rashba physics has been intensively studied in the field of spin orbitronics for the purpose of searching novel physical properties and the ferromagnetic (FM) magnetization switching for technological applications. We report our observation of the inverse Edelstein effect up to room temperature in the Rashba-split two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) between two insulating oxides, SrTiO3 and...

We report the solution of the c(4 × 2) reconstruction of SrTiO3 (001), obtained through a combination of high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, direct methods analysis, and density functional theory. The structure is characterized by a single overlayer of TiO2 stoichiometry in which TiO5 polyhedra are arranged into edge-shared structures, in contrast to the corner-shared TiO6 polyhed...

The atomic-scale response of dielectrics/ferroelectrics to electric fields is central to their functionality. Here we introduce an in situ characterization method that reveals changes in the local atomic structure in polycrystalline materials under fields. The method employs atomic pair distribution functions (PDFs), determined from X-ray total scattering that depends on orientation relative to...

The interface formation between different thicknesses of strontium titanate (SrTiO3) or titanium nitride ~TiN! with a 2000 Å Fe3O4 film is studied using x-ray absorption spectroscopy ~XAS! and x-ray magnetic circular dichroism ~XMCD!. Our results show that the deposition of 10–50 Å of TiN results in an immediate and substantial removal of oxygen from the near interface region, resulting in the ...

Long-range order and phase transitions in two-dimensional (2D) systems-such as magnetism, superconductivity, and crystallinity-have been important research topics for decades. The issue of 2D crystalline order has reemerged recently, with the development of exfoliated atomic crystals. Understanding the dimensional limit of crystalline phases, with different types of bonding and synthetic techni...

The recent development in the fabrication of artificial oxide heterostructures opens new avenues in the field of quantum materials by enabling the manipulation of the charge, spin and orbital degrees of freedom. In this context, the discovery of two-dimensional electron gases (2-DEGs) at LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interfaces, which exhibit both superconductivity and strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC), ...

Density-functional theory calculations reveal that the compensation mechanism at the isolated n-type interface in LaAlO3 /SrTiO3 superlattices involves both ionic and electronic degrees of freedom. Strong polar distortions screen the local electric field and reduce the band discontinuity across the interface. We find that the electronic reconstruction depends sensitively on whether structural o...

Oxide heterostructures have shown rich physics phenomena, particularly in the conjunction of exotic insulator–metal transition (IMT) at interface between polar insulator LaAlO3 and non-polar SrTiO3 (LaAlO3/SrTiO3). The polarization catastrophe model has suggested an electronic reconstruction, yielding to metallicity both surface. Another scenario is occurrence surface oxygen vacancy (surface-Ov...