某些具有时间反演对称性破缺的非中心对称材料，在施加电场下可能表现出非互易输运行为，其中电荷和自旋电流包含电场二阶的分量。在本研究中，我们研究了具有磁性掺杂的LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$（LaO/STO）体系中，在线性和三次方Rashba自旋轨道耦合（RSOC）项影响下的二阶自旋积累以及电荷和自旋响应。我们解释了二阶响应的物理起源，并对不同掺杂磁化方向相对于施加电场的第一阶和第二阶响应进行了对称性分析。然后，我们通过将Schliemann和Loss [Phys. Rev. B 68, 165311]的方法推广到电场的高阶，数值求解了玻尔兹曼输运方程。我们表明，二阶响应的符号可以通过改变磁性掺杂的磁化方向或两个三次方RSOC项的相对强度来切换，并通过考虑相应体系的费米面来解释这些趋势。这些发现为LaO/STO体系中多个自旋轨道耦合效应的相互作用，以及如何利用体系的对称性来调控由此产生的第一阶和第二阶电荷与自旋响应提供了见解。
英文摘要：
Certain non-centrosymmetric materials with broken time-reversal symmetry may exhibit non-reciprocal transport behavior under an applied electric field in which the charge and spin currents contain components that are second order in the electric field. In this study, we investigate the second-order spin accumulation and charge and spin responses in the LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ (LaO/STO) system with magnetic dopants under the influence of linear and cubic Rashba spin-orbit coupling (RSOC) terms. We explain the physical origin of the second-order response and perform a symmetry analysis of the first and second-order responses for different dopant magnetization directions relative to the applied electric field. We then numerically solve the Boltzmann transport equation by extending the approach of Schliemann and Loss [Phys. Rev. B 68, 165311] to higher orders in the electric field. We show that the sign of the second-order responses can be switched by varying the magnetization direction of the magnetic dopants or relative strengths of the two cubic RSOC terms and explain these trends by considering the Fermi surfaces of the respective systems. These findings provide insights into the interplay of multiple SOC effects in a LaO/STO system and how the resulting first- and second-order charge and spin responses can be engineered by exploiting the symmetries of the system.
The interaction between the linear and cubic spin-orbit coupling with magnetic moments and mobile spin-polarized carriers in the LaO/STO system provides new avenues for spin transport applications. We study the interplay between linear and cubic Rashba spin orbit coupling (RSOC) on in-plane magnetic moments in the LaO/STO system using the Boltzmann transport theory based on the relaxation time approximation (RTA) and the more refined Schliemann-Loss (SL) delta-potential scattering model. In general, both methods yield a linear (quadratic) relationship between the spin accumulation (spin curren…
Diluted oxide interface of LaAl1-xMnxO/SrTiO3 (LAMO/STO) provides a new way of tuning the ground states of the interface between the two band insulators of LAO and STO from metallic/superconducting to highly insulating. Increasing the Mn doping level (x) leads to a delicate control of the carrier density as well as a raise in the electron mobility and spin polarization. Herein, we demonstrate a tunable Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and spin polarization of LAMO/STO (0.2 <= x <= 0.3) by applying a back gate. The presence of SOC causes the splitting of energy band into two branches by a spin …
We formulate the effective Hamiltonian of Rashba spin-orbit coupling (RSOC) in $\mathrm{LaAlO_3/SrTiO_3}$ (LAO/STO) heterostructures. We derive analytical expressions of properties, e.g., Rashba parameter, effective mass, band edge energy and orbital occupancy, as functions of material and tunable heterostructure parameters. While linear RSOC is dominant around the $Γ$-point, cubic RSOC becomes significant at the higher-energy anti-crossing region. We find that linear RSOC stems from the structural inversion asymmetry (SIA), while the cubic term is induced by both SIA and bulk asymmetry. Furth…
The properties of graphene depend sensitively on doping with respect to the charge-neutrality point (CNP). Tuning the CNP usually requires electrical gating or chemical doping. Here, we describe a technique to reversibly control the CNP in graphene with nanoscale precision, utilizing LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ (LAO/STO) heterostructures and conductive atomic force microscope (c-AFM) lithography. The local electron density and resulting conductivity of the LAO/STO interface can be patterned with a conductive AFM tip, and placed within two nanometers of an active graphene device. The proximal LAO/STO n…
Intrinsic Negative-U Centers in Freestanding LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Micro-membranes
Technical University of Denmark（丹麦技术大学）；Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”（那不勒斯费德里科二世大学）；CNR-SPIN（意大利国家研究委员会自旋电子学研究所）；ESPCI Paris, Université PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université（巴黎高等物理化工学院、巴黎文理研究大学、法国国家科学研究中心、索邦大学）；Laboratoire Albert Fert, CNRS, Thales, Université Paris-Saclay（阿尔伯特·费尔实验室、法国国家科学研究中心、泰雷兹集团、巴黎萨克雷大学）；Chalmers University of Technology（查尔姆斯理工大学）
We study the recently discovered even-odd effects in the normal state of single-electron devices manufactured at strontium titanium oxide/lanthanum aluminum oxide interfaces (STO/LAO). Within the framework of the number parity-projected formalism and a phenomenological fermion-boson model we find that, in sharp contrast to conventional superconductors, the crossover temperature $T^*$ for the onset of number parity effect is considerably larger than the superconducting transition temperature $T_c$ due to the existence of a pairing gap above $T_c$. Furthermore, the finite lifetime of the preform…
Nanoscale control of the quasi-two-dimensional electron gas at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 (LAO/STO) interface by a conductive probe tip has triggered the development of a number of electronic devices. While the spatial distribution of the conductance is crucial for such devices, it is challenging to directly visualize the local electrical properties at the buried interface. Here we demonstrate conductivity imaging of sketched nanostructures at the LAO/STO interface by microwave impedance microscopy (MIM) with a lateral resolution on the order of 100 nm. The sheet conductance extracted from the MIM data…
We have measured the electronic structure of the two-dimensional electron system (2DES) found at the Al/SrTiO3 (Al/STO) and LaAlO3/SrTiO3 (LAO/STO) interfaces by means of laser angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy, taking advantage of the large photoelectron escape depth at low photon energy to probe these buried interfaces. We demonstrate the possibility of tuning the electronic density in Al/STO by varying the Al layer thickness and show that the electronic structure evolution is well described by self-consistent tight binding supercell calculations, but differs qualitatively from a rig…
Spin-charge interconversion is a very active direction in spintronics. Yet, the complex behaviour of some of the most promising systems such as SrTiO$_3$ (STO) interfaces is not fully understood. Here, on the basis of a 6-band $\boldsymbol{k.p}$ method combined with spin-resolved scattering theory, we give a theoretical demonstration of transverse spin-charge interconversion physics in STO Rashba interfaces. Calculations involve injection of spin current from a ferromagnetic contact by resonant tunneling into the native Rashba-split resonant levels of the STO triangular quantum well. We comput…
Electronic phase separation is crucial for the fascinating macroscopic properties of the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 (LAO/STO) paradigm oxide interface, including the coexistence of superconductivity and ferromagnetism. We investigate this phenomenon using angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) in the soft-X-ray energy range, where the enhanced probing depth combined with resonant photoexcitation allow access to fundamental electronic structure characteristics (momentum-resolved spectral function, dispersions and ordering of energy bands, Fermi surface) of buried interfaces. Our experiment uses X…
We demonstrate efficient intrinsic spin-to-charge current conversion in a two-dimensional electron gas using an all-epitaxial single-crystal heterostructure of LaSrMnO3/ LaAlO3 (LAO)/ SrTiO3 (STO), which can suppress spin scattering and give us an ideal environment to investigate intrinsic spin-charge conversion. With decreasing temperature to 20 K, the spin-to-charge conversion efficiency is drastically enhanced to +3.9 nm, which is the largest positive value ever reported for LAO/STO. Our band-structure calculation well reproduces this behavior and predicts further enhancement by controlling…
Local probing of superconductivity at oxide interfaces with atomic force microscopy
National Institute of Standards and Technology（美国国家标准与技术研究院）；Joint Quantum Institute, Department of Physics, University of Maryland（马里兰大学物理系联合量子研究所）；Department of Advanced Material Science, The University of Tokyo（东京大学先进材料科学系）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh（匹兹堡大学物理与天文学系）；Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin–Madison（威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校材料科学与工程系）；Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland（马里兰大学化学与生物化学系）；Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics, University of Regensburg（雷根斯堡大学实验与应用物理研究所）
The two-dimensional electron gas at the interface between LaAlO$_3$ and SrTiO$_3$ (LAO/STO) exhibits gate tunable superconductivity with a characteristic dome-like shape of the critical temperature ($T_c$) in the phase diagram. As shown recently [Phys. Rev. B 102, 085420 (2020)], such an effect can be explained as a consequence of the extended $s-$wave symmetry of the gap within an intersite real space pairing scenario, leading to a good agreement between the experiment and theory. In this work, we turn to a detailed analysis of the influence of spin-orbit coupling on the LAO/STO phase diagram…
Electrolyte gating is a powerful means for tuning the carrier density and exploring the resultant modulation of novel properties on solid surfaces. However, the mechanism, especially its effect on the oxygen migration and electrostatic charging at the oxide heterostructures, is still unclear. Here we explore the electrolyte gating on oxygen-deficient interfaces between SrTiO3 (STO) crystals and LaAlO3 (LAO) overlayer through the measurements of electrical transport, X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and photoluminescence (PL) spectra. We found that oxygen vacancies (Ovac) were filled selecti…
We evaluate the non-equilibrium spin polarization induced by an applied electric field for a tight-binding model of electron states at oxides interfaces in LAO/STO heterostructures. By a combination of analytic and numerical approaches we investigate how the spin texture of the electron eigenstates due to the interplay of spin-orbit coupling and inversion asymmetry determines the sign of the induced spin polarization as a function of the chemical potential or band filling, both in the absence and presence of local disorder. With the latter, we find that the induced spin polarization evolves fr…
Cavity-QED enhancement of quantum entanglement and battery performance in double quantum dots
P. J. Šafárik University（帕·约·沙法里克大学）；Abbottabad University of Science and Technology（阿伯塔巴德科学与技术大学）；Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM)（基础科学研究所）
The phenomenon originating from spin-orbit coupling (SOC) provides energy-efficient strategies for spin manipulation and device applications. The broken inversion symmetry interface and resulting electric field induce a Rashba-type spin-orbit field (SOF), which has been demonstrated to generate spin-orbit torque for data storage applications. In this study, we found that spin flipping can be achieved by the valley-Zeeman SOF in monolayer WSe2 at room temperature, which manifests as a negative magnetoresistance in the vertical spin valve. Quantum transmission calculations based on an effective …
Quantum interference between time-reversed electron paths in two dimensions leads to the well-known weak localization correction to resistance. If spin-orbit coupling is present, the resistance correction is negative, termed weak anti-localization (WAL). Here we report the observation of WAL coexisting with exchange coupling between itinerant electrons and localized magnetic moments. We use low-temperature magneto-transport measurements to investigate the quasi-two-dimensional, high-electron-density interface formed between SrTiO$_3$ (STO) and the anti-ferromagnetic Mott insulator NdTiO$_3$ (N…
Spintronics aims to utilize the spin degree of freedom for information storage and computing applications. One major issue is the generation and detection of spins via spin and charge conversion. Quantum materials have recently exhibited many unique spin-dependent properties, which can be used as promising material candidates for efficient spin and charge conversion. Here, we review recent findings concerning spin and charge conversion in quantum materials, including Rashba interfaces, topological insulators, two-dimensional materials, superconductors, and non-collinear antiferromagnets. Impor…
