Owing to the discovery of novel interfacial phenoman, interfacial physics has been attract plenty attention recently. In particular, complex oxide interfaces have exhibited wide range of novel interfacial physical properties not seen in the bulk counterparts. Unlike traditional metals and semiconductors, where electrons are treated as electron gas (weakly interactions), complex oxides exhibit a highly coupled environment for charge, spin, orbital and lattice to have strong interactions. These highly coupled interactions provide a unique environment for many novel functionalities, such as superconductivity, ferromagnetism, ferroelectricity, coloso-magnetoresistance, and multiferroics. These highly coupled interactions are also, on the other hand, the reason that the properties of these materials are difficulty to be predicted. In this talk, I will introduce an experimental technique - cross-sectional scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (XSTM/S) – for studying complex oxide interfaces [1–7]. In the end, I will also discuss the future of this technique for interfacial physics beyond complex oxides [7–13].
References:
[1] N. P.Guisinger, T. S.Santos, J. R.Guest, T.-Y.Chien, A.Bhattacharya, J. W.Freeland, and M.Bode, ACS Nano 3, 4132 (2009).
[2] T.Chien, T. S.Santos, M.Bode, N. P.Guisinger, andJ. W.Freeland, Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 163107 (2009).
[3] T.Chien, N. P.Guisinger, andJ. W.Freeland, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B Microelectron. Nanom. Struct. 28, C5A11 (2010).
[4] T.-Y.Chien, J.Liu, J.Chakhalian, N.Guisinger, andJ.Freeland, Phys. Rev. B 82, 041101(R) (2010).
[5] T.Chien, J.Liu, A. J.Yost, J.Chakhalian, J. W.Freeland, andN. P.Guisinger, Sci. Rep. 6, 19017 (2016).
[6] A.Wang andT.Chien, Phys. Lett. A 382, 739 (2018).
[7] T.Chien, in Adv. Nanomater., edited by G.Balasubramanian (2018), pp. 97–134.
[8] T.Chien, J. W.Freeland, andN. P.Guisinger, Appl. Phys. Lett. 100, 31601 (2012).
[9] A. J.Yost, A.Pimachev, C.-C.Ho, S. B.Darling, L.Wang, W.-F.Su, Y.Dahnovsky, and T.Chien, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 8, 29110 (2016).
[10] V.Rose, K.Wang, T.Chien, J.Hiller, D.Rosenmann, J. W.Freeland, C.Preissner, andS.-W.Hla, Adv. Funct. Mater. 23, 2646 (2013).
[11] M. L.Cummings, T.Chien, C.Preissner, V.Madhavan, D.Diesing, M.Bode, J. W.Freeland, andV.Rose, Ultramicroscopy 112, 22 (2012).
[12] V.Rose, T. Y.Chien, J. W.Freeland, D.Rosenmann, J.Hiller, andV.Metlushko, J. Appl. Phys. 111, 07E304 (2012).
[13] V.Rose, T. Y.Chien, J.Hiller, D.Rosenmann, andR. P.Winarski, Appl. Phys. Lett. 99, 173102 (2011).