Discovery of a magnetic conductive interface in PbZr 0.2 Ti 0.8 O 3 /SrTiO 3 heterostructures

Yi Zhang, Lin Xie, Jeongwoo Kim, Alex Stern, Hui Wang, Kui Zhang, Xingxu Yan, Linze Li, Henry Liu, Gejian Zhao, Hang Chi, Chaitanya Gadre, Qiyin Lin, Yichun Zhou, Ctirad Uher, Tingyong Chen, Ying Hao Chu, Jing Xia, Ruqian Wu, Xiaoqing Pan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

Emergent physical properties often arise at interfaces of complex oxide heterostructures due to the interplay between various degrees of freedom, especially those with polar discontinuities. It is desirable to explore if these structures may generate pure and controllable spin currents, which are needed to attain unmatched performance and energy efficiency in the next-generation spintronic devices. Here we report the emergence of a spin-polarized two-dimensional electron gas (SP-2DEG) at the interface of two insulators, SrTiO 3 and PbZr 0.2 Ti 0.8 O 3 . This SP-2DEG is strongly localized at the interfacial Ti atoms, due to the interplay between Coulomb interaction and band bending, and can be tuned by the ferroelectric polarization. Our findings open a door for engineering ferroelectric/insulator interfaces to create tunable ferroic orders for magnetoelectric device applications and provide opportunities for designing multiferroic materials in heterostructures.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number685
JournalNature communications
Volume9
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 2018

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Chemistry
  • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
  • General Physics and Astronomy

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