journal article·2016-08Open access

Tailoring the nature and strength of electron–phonon interactions in the SrTiO3(001) 2D electron liquid

Z. Wang, S. McKeown Walker, A. Tamai, Y. Wang, Z. Ristic, F. Y. Bruno, A. de la Torre, S. Riccò, N. C. Plumb, M. Shi, P. Hlawenka, J. Sánchez-Barriga, A. Varykhalov, T. K. Kim, M. Hoesch, P. D. C. King, W. Meevasana, U. Diebold, J. Mesot, B. Moritz, T. P. Devereaux, M. Radovic, F. Baumberger

Nature Materials· Volume 15· Issue 8

Abstract

Surfaces and interfaces offer new possibilities for tailoring the many-body interactions that dominate the electrical and thermal properties of transition metal oxides. Here, we use the prototypical two-dimensional electron liquid (2DEL) at the SrTiO3(001) surface to reveal a remarkably complex evolution of electron-phonon coupling with the tunable carrier density of this system. At low density, where superconductivity is found in the analogous 2DEL at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface, our angle-resolved photoemission data show replica bands separated by 100 meV from the main bands. This is a hallmark of a coherent polaronic liquid and implies long-range coupling to a single longitudinal optical phonon branch. In the overdoped regime the preferential coupling to this branch decreases and the 2DEL undergoes a crossover to a more conventional metallic state with weaker short-range electron-phonon interaction. These results place constraints on the theoretical description of superconductivity and allow a unified understanding of the transport properties in SrTiO3-based 2DELs.
Source: europepmc · Quality: candidate unverified · Source record ↗

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Electronic and Structural Properties of Oxides · Magnetic and transport properties of perovskites and related materials · Semiconductor materials and devices

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

References (36)

Show source-provided references
1. Mannhart, J. & Schlom, D. G. Oxide interfaces—an opportunity for electronics. Science 327, 1607–1611 (2010).10.1126/science.1181862 ↗
2. Lee, J. J. et al. Interfacial mode coupling as the origin of the enhancement of Tc in FeSe films on SrTiO3 . Nature 515, 245–248 (2014).10.1038/nature13894 ↗
3. Zubko, P., Gariglio, S., Gabay, M., Ghosez, P. & Triscone, J.-M. Interface physics in complex oxide heterostructures. Annu. Rev. Condens. Matter Phys. 2, 141–165 (2011).10.1146/annurev-conmatphys-062910-140445 ↗
4. Ohtomo, A. & Hwang, H. Y. A high-mobility electron gas at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 heterointerface. Nature 427, 423–426 (2004).10.1038/nature02308 ↗
5. Meevasana, W. et al. Creation and control of a two-dimensional electron liquid at the bare SrTiO3 surface. Nature Mater. 10, 114–118 (2011).10.1038/nmat2943 ↗
6. Santander-Syro, A. F. et al. Two-dimensional electron gas with universal subbands at the surface of SrTiO3 . Nature 469, 189–193 (2011).10.1038/nature09720 ↗
7. King, P. D. C. et al. Quasiparticle dynamics and spin-orbital texture of the SrTiO3 two-dimensional electron gas. Nature Commun. 5, 3414 (2014).10.1038/ncomms4414 ↗
8. Thiel, S., Hammerl, G., Schmehl, A., Schneider, C. W. & Mannhart, J. Tunable quasi-two-dimensional electron gases in oxide heterostructures. Science 313, 1942–1945 (2006).10.1126/science.1131091 ↗
9. Reyren, N. et al. Superconducting interfaces between insulating oxides. Science 317, 1196–1199 (2007).10.1126/science.1146006 ↗
10. Caviglia, A. D. et al. Electric field control of the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface ground state. Nature 456, 624–627 (2008).10.1038/nature07576 ↗
11. Richter, C. et al. Interface superconductor with gap behaviour like a high-temperature superconductor. Nature 502, 528–531 (2008).10.1038/nature12494 ↗
12. Cheng, G. et al. Electron pairing without superconductivity. Nature 521, 196–199 (2015).10.1038/nature14398 ↗
13. Boschker, H., Richter, C., Fillis-Tsirakis, E., Schneider, C. W. & Mannhart, J. Electron–phonon coupling and the superconducting phase diagram of the LaAlO3-SrTiO3 interface. Sci. Rep. 5, 12309 (2015).10.1038/srep12309 ↗
14. Plumb, N. C. et al. Mixed dimensionality of confined conducting electrons in the surface region of SrTiO3 . Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 086801 (2014).10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.086801 ↗
15. Wang, Z. et al. Anisotropic two-dimensional electron gas at SrTiO3(110). Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 111, 3933–3937 (2014).10.1073/pnas.1318304111 ↗
16. McKeown Walker, S. et al. Carrier-density control of the SrTiO3 (001) surface 2D electron gas studied by ARPES. Adv. Mater. 27, 3894–3899 (2015).10.1002/adma.201501556 ↗
17. Gervais, F., Servoin, J.-L., Baratoff, A., Bednorz, J. G. & Binnig, G. Temperature dependence of plasmons in Nb-doped SrTiO3 . Phys. Rev. B 47, 8187–8194 (1993).10.1103/PhysRevB.47.8187 ↗
18. Chang, Y. J., Bostwick, A., Kim, Y. S., Horn, K. & Rotenberg, E. Structure and correlation effects in semiconducting SrTiO3 . Phys. Rev. B 81, 235109 (2010).10.1103/PhysRevB.81.235109 ↗
19. Devreese, J. T. & Alexandrov, A. S. Fröhlich polaron and bipolaron: recent developments. Rep. Prog. Phys. 72, 066501 (2009).10.1088/0034-4885/72/6/066501 ↗
20. Alexandrov, A. S. Theory of Superconductivity: From Weak to Strong Coupling (Series in Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, 2003).10.1887/0750308362 ↗
21. Moser, S. et al. Tunable polaronic conduction in anatase TiO2 . Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 196403 (2013).10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.196403 ↗
22. Chen, C., Avila, J., Frantzeskakis, E., Levy, A. & Asensio, M. C. Observation of a two-dimensional liquid of Fröhlich polarons at the bare SrTiO3 surface. Nature Commun. 6, 8585 (2015).10.1038/ncomms9585 ↗
23. Salluzzo, M. et al. Orbital reconstruction and the two-dimensional electron gas at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface. Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 166804 (2009).10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.166804 ↗
24. Lee, T. D., Low, F. E. & Pines, D. The motion of slow electrons in a polar crystal. Phys. Rev. 90, 297–302 (1953).10.1103/PhysRev.90.297 ↗
25. Mishchenko, A. S., Prokof’ev, N. V., Sakamoto, A. & Svistunov, B. V. Diagrammatic quantum Monte Carlo study of the Fröhlich polaron. Phys. Rev. B 62, 6317–6336 (2000).10.1103/PhysRevB.62.6317 ↗
26. van Mechelen, J. L. M. et al. Electron–phonon interaction and charge carrier mass enhancement in SrTiO3 . Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 226403 (2008).10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.226403 ↗
27. Devreese, J. T., Klimin, S. N., van Mechelen, J. L. M. & van der Marel, D. Many-body large polaron optical conductivity in SrTi1−xNbxO3 . Phys. Rev. B 81, 125119 (2010).10.1103/PhysRevB.81.125119 ↗
28. Mishchenko, A. S., Nagaosa, N. & Prokof’ev, N. Diagrammatic Monte Carlo method for many-polaron problems. Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 166402 (2014).10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.166402 ↗
29. Cancellieri, C. et al. Polaronic metal state at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface. Nature Commun. 7, 10386 (2016).10.1038/ncomms10386 ↗
30. Mikheev, E. et al. Limitations to the room temperature mobility of two- and three-dimensional electron liquids in SrTiO3 . Appl. Phys. Lett. 106, 062102 (2015).10.1063/1.4907888 ↗
31. Lin, X. et al. Critical doping for the onset of a two-band superconducting ground state in SrTiO3−δ . Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 207002 (2014).10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.207002 ↗
32. Klimin, S. N., Tempere, J., Devreese, J. T. & van der Marel, D. Interface superconductivity in LaAlO3/SrTiO3 . Phys. Rev. B 89, 184514 (2014).10.1103/PhysRevB.89.184514 ↗
33. Gorkov, L. P. Phonon mechanism in the most dilute superconductor: n-type SrTiO3. Preprint at http://arxiv.org/abs/1508.00529 (2015).
34. Emin, D. Formation, motion, and high-temperature superconductivity of large bipolarons. Phys. Rev. Lett. 62, 1544–1547 (1989).10.1103/PhysRevLett.62.1544 ↗
35. Hohenadler, M., Aichhorn, M. & Von Der Linden, W. Single-particle spectral function of the Holstein–Hubbard bipolaron. Phys. Rev. B 71, 014302 (2004).10.1103/PhysRevB.71.014302 ↗
36. Wang, Q.-Y. et al. Interface-induced high-temperature superconductivity in single unit-cell FeSe films on SrTiO3 . Chin. Phys. Lett. 29, 037402 (2012).10.1088/0256-307X/29/3/037402 ↗