Two-dimensional electron gas with universal subbands at the surface of SrTiO₃

Date: Thursday, February 3rd

Time: 10:00 am

Place: 5310 Chamberlin

Speaker: Andres Santander, CSNSM - Université Paris-Sud, France

Abstract: Similar to silicon that is the basis of conventional electronics, strontium titanate (SrTiO₃) is the bedrock of the emerging field of oxide electronics. SrTiO₃ is the preferred template to create exotic two-dimensional (2D) phases of electron matter at oxide interfaces, exhibiting metal-insulator transitions, superconductivity, or large negative magnetoresistance. However, the physical nature of the electronic structure underlying these 2D electron gases (2DEGs) remains elusive, although its determination is crucial to understand their remarkable properties. In this talk, we present our angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) results showing that there is a highly metallic universal 2DEG at the vacuum-cleaved surface of SrTiO₃, independent of bulk carrier densities over more than seven decades, including the undoped insulating material [1]. Our data unveil a remarkable electronic structure consisting on multiple subbands of heavy and light electrons. The analysis of the data shows that this 2DEG is confined within a region of ~5 unit cells with a sheet carrier density of ~0.33 electrons per a² (a is the cubic lattice parameter). The similarity of this 2DEG with those reported in SrTiO₃-based heterostructures and field-effect transistors suggests that different forms of electron confinement at the surface of SrTiO₃ lead to essentially the same 2DEG. Our discovery provides a model system for the study of the electronic structure of 2DEGs in SrTiO₃-based devices, and a novel route to generate 2DEGs at surfaces of functional oxides.

[1] A. F. Santander-Syro, O. Copie, T. Kondo, et al. "Two-dimensional electron gas with universal subbands at the surface of SrTiO₃". Nature 469, 189 (2011).

Host: Natalia Perkins & Andrey Chubukov

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