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Updated: Mar 24, 2026

Growth and Electrostatic/chemical Properties of Metal/LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Heterostructures
Published on: February 8, 2018
Evidence for lattice-polarization-enhanced field effects at the SrTiO3-based heterointerface
1Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics and Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, P. R. China.
Abstract:
Electrostatic gating provides a powerful approach to tune the conductivity of the two-dimensional electron liquid between two insulating oxides. For the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 (LAO/STO) interface, such gating effect could be further enhanced by a strong lattice polarization of STO caused by simultaneous application of gate field and illumination light. Herein, by monitoring the discharging process upon removing the gate field, we give firm evidence for the occurrence of this lattice polarization at the amorphous-LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface. Moreover, we find that the lattice polarization is accompanied with a large expansion of the out-of-plane lattice of STO. Photo excitation affects the polarization process by accelerating the field-induced lattice expansion. The present work demonstrates the great potential of combined stimuli in exploring emergent phenomenon at complex oxide interfaces.
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