A First-Principles Study of the Electronic Reconstructions of LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Heterointerfaces and Their Variants

Details A First-Principles Study of the Electronic Reconstructions of LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Heterointerfaces and Their Variants A First-Principles Study of the Electronic Reconstructions of LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Heterointerfaces and Their Variants

2010-08-19

arxiv.org/abs/1008.3372v1

Phys. Rev. B 82, 085430 (2010)

Physics

Condensed Matter

Materials Science

50 pages, 18 figures and 4 tables

Scientific paper

We present a first-principles study of the electronic structures and properties of ideal (atomically sharp) LaAlO3/SrTiO3 (001) heterointerfaces and their variants such as a new class of quantum well systems. We demonstrate the insulating-to-metallic transition as a function of the LaAlO3 film thickness in these systems. After the phase transition, we find that conduction electrons are bound to the n-type interface while holes diffuse away from the p-type interface, and we explain this asymmetry in terms of a large hopping matrix element that is unique to the n-type interface. We build a tight-binding model based on these hopping matrix elements to illustrate how the conduction electron gas is bound to the n-type interface. Based on the `polar catastrophe' mechanism, we propose a new class of quantum wells at which we can manually control the spatial extent of the conduction electron gas. In addition, we develop a continuous model to unify the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interfaces and quantum wells and predict the thickness dependence of sheet carrier densities of these systems. Finally, we study the external field effect on both LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interfaces and quantum well systems. Our systematic study of the electronic reconstruction of LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interfaces may serve as a guide to engineering transition metal oxide heterointerfaces.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

A First-Principles Study of the Electronic Reconstructions of LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Heterointerfaces and Their Variants does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with A First-Principles Study of the Electronic Reconstructions of LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Heterointerfaces and Their Variants, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and A First-Principles Study of the Electronic Reconstructions of LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Heterointerfaces and Their Variants will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-135573