journal article·2026-01Open access

Giant photoconductance at infinite-layer nickelate/SrTiO3 interfaces via an optically induced high-mobility electron gas

David Sanchez-Manzano, G. Krieger, A. Raji, B. Geisler, H. Sahib, V. Humbert, H. Jaffrès, J. Santamaría, R. Pentcheva, A. Gloter, D. Preziosi, Javier E. Villegas

Nature Materials· Volume 25· Issue 1

Abstract

Two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) at oxide interfaces are promising for electronics because of desirable ingredients such as spin-orbit coupling and strong correlations that can be leveraged to bridge into spintronics or photonics. In this context, the ability to manipulate oxide 2DEGs via external knobs is particularly important. Here we show that a volatile high-mobility 2DEG can be photogenerated at the interface between SrTiO3 (001) and infinite-layer NdNiO2, where such an electronic state is otherwise absent. This allows us to optically switch the 2DEG between ON and OFF, leading to a giant, instantaneous conductivity variation. The key ingredients for this effect are the structural and electronic reconstructions at the NdNiO2//SrTiO3 interface, together with a built-in interfacial electric field that promotes the occupation of the Ti 3dxy band by the photogenerated carriers. By contributing to understanding photoconductance at complex-oxide interfaces, our results pave the way to engineer the photoresponse of strongly correlated electrons.
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 (70)

Show source-provided references
1. Catalano, S. et al. Rare-earth nickelates RNiO3: thin films and heterostructures. Rep. Prog. Phys. 81, 046501 (2018).10.1088/1361-6633/aaa37a ↗
2. Li, D. et al. Superconductivity in an infinite-layer nickelate. Nature 572, 624–627 (2019).10.1038/s41586-019-1496-5 ↗
3. Wu, X. et al. Robust $${d}_{{x}2-{y}2}$$-wave superconductivity of infinite-layer nickelates. Phys. Rev. B 101, 060504 (2020).10.1103/PhysRevB.101.060504 ↗
4. Fowlie, J. et al. Intrinsic magnetism in superconducting infinite-layer nickelates. Nat. Phys. 18, 1043–1047 (2022).10.1038/s41567-022-01684-y ↗
5. Krieger, G. et al. Signatures of canted antiferromagnetism in infinite-layer nickelates studied by X-ray magnetic dichroism. Phys. Rev. B 110, 195110 (2024).10.1103/PhysRevB.110.195110 ↗
6. Krieger, G. et al. Charge and spin order dichotomy in NdNiO2 driven by the capping layer. Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 27002 (2022).10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.027002 ↗
7. Raji, A. et al. Charge distribution across capped and uncapped infinite-layer neodymium nickelate thin films. Small 19, 2304872 (2023).10.1002/smll.202304872 ↗
8. Lee, K. et al. Linear-in-temperature resistivity for optimally superconducting (Nd,Sr)NiO2. Nature 619, 288–292 (2023).10.1038/s41586-023-06129-x ↗
9. Tam, C. C. et al. Charge density waves in infinite-layer NdNiO2 nickelates. Nat. Mater. 21, 1116–1120 (2022).10.1038/s41563-022-01330-1 ↗
10. Geisler, B. & Pentcheva, R. Fundamental difference in the electronic reconstruction of infinite-layer versus perovskite neodymium nickelate films on SrTiO3 (001). Phys. Rev. B 102, 020502 (2020).10.1103/PhysRevB.102.020502 ↗
11. Geisler, B. & Pentcheva, R. Correlated interface electron gas in infinite-layer nickelate versus cuprate films on SrTiO3(001). Phys. Rev. Res. 3, 013261 (2021).10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.013261 ↗
12. Goodge, B. H. et al. Resolving the polar interface of infinite-layer nickelate thin films. Nat. Mater. 22, 466–473 (2023).10.1038/s41563-023-01510-7 ↗
13. El Hage, R. et al. Bimodal ionic photomemristor based on a high-temperature oxide superconductor/semiconductor junction. Nat. Commun. 14, 3010 (2023).10.1038/s41467-023-38608-0 ↗
14. El Hage, R. et al. Disentangling photodoping, photoconductivity, and photosuperconductivity in the cuprates. Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 066001 (2024).10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.066001 ↗
15. Yang, Z. et al. Photoinduced phase transition in infinite-layer nickelates. Small 19, 2304146 (2023).10.1002/smll.202304146 ↗
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. Rebec, S. N. et al. Dichotomy of the photo-induced 2-dimensional electron gas on SrTiO3 surface terminations. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 116, 16687–16691 (2019).10.1073/pnas.1821937116 ↗
18. Meevasana, W. et al. Creation and control of a two-dimensional electron liquid at the bare SrTiO3 surface. Nat. Mater. 10, 114–118 (2011).10.1038/nmat2943 ↗
19. Di Gennaro, E. et al. Persistent photoconductivity in 2D electron gases at different oxide interfaces. Adv. Opt. Mater. 1, 834–843 (2013).10.1002/adom.201300150 ↗
20. Lei, Y. & Sun, J. R. Visible light illumination-induced phase transition to the intermediate states between the metallic and insulating states for the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interfaces. Appl. Phys. Lett. 105, 241601 (2014).10.1063/1.4904460 ↗
21. Yang, G. et al. Reversible photomodulation of two-dimensional electron gas in LaAlO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures. Nano Lett. 23, 6369–6377 (2023).10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c01076 ↗
22. Rastogi, A., Pulikkotil, J. J., Auluck, S., Hossain, Z. & Budhani, R. C. Photoconducting state and its perturbation by electrostatic fields in oxide-based two-dimensional electron gas. Phys. Rev. B 86, 075127 (2012).10.1103/PhysRevB.86.075127 ↗
23. Krieger, G. et al. Synthesis of infinite-layer nickelates and influence of the capping-layer on magnetotransport. J. Phys. D 56, 024003 (2022).10.1088/1361-6463/aca54a ↗
24. Kok, D. J. et al. Temperature-dependent optical absorption of SrTiO3. Phys. Status Solidi A 212, 1880–1887 (2015).10.1002/pssa.201431836 ↗
25. Riste, T., Samuelsen, E. J., Otnes, K. & Feder, J. Critical behaviour of SrTiO3 near the 105°K phase transition. Solid State Commun. 9, 1455–1458 (1971).10.1016/0038-1098(71)90155-4 ↗
26. Neville, R. C., Hoeneisen, B. & Mead, C. A. Permittivity of strontium titanate. J. Appl. Phys. 43, 2124–2131 (1972).10.1063/1.1661463 ↗
27. Ang, C., Quo, R., Bhalla, A. S. & Cross, L. E. Effect of electric field and post-treatment on dielectric behavior of SrTiO3 single crystal. J. Appl. Phys. 87, 3937–3940 (2000).10.1063/1.372438 ↗
28. Tufte, O. N. & Chapman, P. W. Electron mobility in semiconducting strontium titanate. Phys. Rev. 155, 796 (1967).10.1103/PhysRev.155.796 ↗
29. Trier, F., Christensen, D. V. & Pryds, N. Electron mobility in oxide heterostructures. J. Phys. D 51, 293002 (2018).10.1088/1361-6463/aac9aa ↗
30. Ohtomo, A. & Hwang, H. Y. A high-mobility electron gas at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 heterointerface. Nature 427, 423–426 (2004).10.1038/nature02308 ↗
31. Lee, H. et al. Direct observation of a two-dimensional hole gas at oxide interfaces. Nat. Mater. 17, 231–236 (2018).10.1038/s41563-017-0002-4 ↗
32. Matsubara, Y. et al. Observation of the quantum Hall effect in δ-doped SrTiO3. Nat. Commun. 7, 11631 (2016).10.1038/ncomms11631 ↗
33. Chen, Y. Z. et al. A high-mobility two-dimensional electron gas at the spinel/perovskite interface of γ-Al2O3/SrTiO3. Nat. Commun. 4, 1371 (2013).10.1038/ncomms2394 ↗
34. Jia, Q. & Gloter, A. Real-space observation of potential reconstruction at metallic/insulating oxide interface. Adv. Mater. Interfaces 10, 2202165 (2023).10.1002/admi.202202165 ↗
35. Hu, K. et al. Atomic scale disorder and reconstruction in bulk infinite-layer nickelates lacking superconductivity. Nat. Commun. 15, 5104 (2024).10.1038/s41467-024-49533-1 ↗
36. Goodge, B. H. et al. Doping evolution of the Mott-Hubbard landscape in infinite-layer nickelates. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 118, e2007683118 (2021).10.1073/pnas.2007683118 ↗
37. Rossi, M. et al. Orbital and spin character of doped carriers in infinite-layer nickelates. Phys. Rev. B 104, L220505 (2021).10.1103/PhysRevB.104.L220505 ↗
38. Raji, A. et al. Unraveling p-type and n-type interfaces in superconducting infinite-layer nickelate thin films. Adv. Funct. Mater. 34, 2409930 (2024).10.1002/adfm.202409930 ↗
39. Nord, M., Vullum, P. E., MacLaren, I., Tybell, T. & Holmestad, R. Atomap: a new software tool for the automated analysis of atomic resolution images using two-dimensional Gaussian fitting. Adv. Struct. Chem. Imaging 3, 9 (2017).10.1186/s40679-017-0042-5 ↗
40. Haruta, M., Nemoto, T. & Kurata, H. Sub-picometer sensitivity and effect of anisotropic atomic vibrations on Ti L2,3-edge spectrum of SrTiO3. Appl. Phys. Lett. 119, 211902 (2021).10.1063/5.0068861 ↗
41. Gloter, A. et al. Role of point and line defects on the electronic structure of LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interfaces. APL Mater. 8, 011104 (2020).10.1063/1.5132376 ↗
42. Iglesias, L., Gómez, A., Gich, M. & Rivadulla, F. Tuning oxygen vacancy diffusion through strain in SrTiO3 thin films. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 10, 35367–35373 (2018).10.1021/acsami.8b12019 ↗
43. Kozuka, Y., Hikita, Y., Susaki, T. & Hwang, H. Y. Optically tuned dimensionality crossover in photocarrier-doped SrTiO3: onset of weak localization. Phys. Rev. B 76, 085129 (2007).10.1103/PhysRevB.76.085129 ↗
44. Geisler, B. Rashba spin-orbit coupling in infinite-layer nickelate films on SrTiO3 (001) and KTaO3 (001). Phys. Rev. B 108, 224502 (2023).10.1103/PhysRevB.108.224502 ↗
45. Geisler, B. et al. Optical properties and electronic correlations in La3Ni2O7 bilayer nickelates under high pressure. npj Quantum Mater. 9, 89 (2024).10.1038/s41535-024-00690-y ↗
46. Capizzi, M. & Frova, A. Optical gap of strontium titanate (deviation from Urbach tail behavior). Phys. Rev. Lett. 25, 1298 (1970).10.1103/PhysRevLett.25.1298 ↗
47. Goldschmidt, D. & Tuller, H. L. Fundamental absorption edge of SrTiO3 at high temperatures. Phys. Rev. B 35, 4360 (1987).10.1103/PhysRevB.35.4360 ↗
48. Blazey, K. W. Optical absorption edge of SrTiO3 around the 105-K phase transition. Phys. Rev. Lett. 27, 146 (1971).10.1103/PhysRevLett.27.146 ↗
49. Begum, V., Gruner, M. E. & Pentcheva, R. Role of the exchange-correlation functional on the structural, electronic, and optical properties of cubic and tetragonal SrTiO3 including many-body effects. Phys. Rev. Mater. 3, 075001 (2019).10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.3.065004 ↗
50. Copie, O. et al. Towards two-dimensional metallic behavior at LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interfaces. Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 216804 (2009).10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.216804 ↗
51. Tencé, M. et al. Electron energy-loss spectroscopy using MerlinEM-Medipix3 detector. Microsc. Microanal. 26, 1940–1942 (2020).10.1017/S1431927620019881 ↗
52. Auad, Y. et al. Event-based hyperspectral EELS: towards nanosecond temporal resolution. Ultramicroscopy 239, 113539 (2022).10.1016/j.ultramic.2022.113539 ↗
53. Kohn, W. & Sham, L. J. Self-consistent equations including exchange and correlation effects. Phys. Rev. 140, A1133 (1965).10.1103/PhysRev.140.A1133 ↗
54. Giannozzi, P. et al. QUANTUM ESPRESSO: a modular and open-source software project for quantumsimulations of materials. J. Phys. Condens. Matter 21, 395502 (2009).10.1088/0953-8984/21/39/395502 ↗
55. Perdew, J. P., Burke, K. & Ernzerhof, M. Generalized gradient approximation made simple. Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 3865 (1996).10.1103/PhysRevLett.77.3865 ↗
56. Anisimov, V. I., Solovyev, I. V., Korotin, M. A., Czyyk, M. T. & Sawatzky, G. A. Density-functional theory and NiO photoemission spectra. Phys. Rev. B 48, 16929 (1993).10.1103/PhysRevB.48.16929 ↗
57. Cococcioni, M. & De Gironcoli, S. Linear response approach to the calculation of the effective interaction parameters in the LDA + U method. Phys. Rev. B 71, 035105 (2005).10.1103/PhysRevB.71.035105 ↗
58. Botana, A. S. & Norman, M. R. Similarities and differences between LaNiO2 and CaCuO2 and implications for superconductivity. Phys. Rev. X 10, 011024 (2020).
59. Vanderbilt, D. Soft self-consistent pseudopotentials in a generalized eigenvalue formalism. Phys. Rev. B 41, 7892 (1990).10.1103/PhysRevB.41.7892 ↗
60. Blöchl, P. E. Projector augmented-wave method. Phys. Rev. B 50, 17953 (1994).10.1103/PhysRevB.50.17953 ↗
61. Nomura, Y. et al. Formation of a two-dimensional single-component correlated electron system and band engineering in the nickelate superconductor NdNiO2. Phys. Rev. B 100, 205138 (2019).10.1103/PhysRevB.100.205138 ↗
62. Lechermann, F. Late transition metal oxides with infinite-layer structure: nickelates versus cuprates. Phys. Rev. B 101, 081110 (2020).10.1103/PhysRevB.101.081110 ↗
63. Monkhorst, H. J. & Pack, J. D. Special points for Brillouin-zone integrations. Phys. Rev. B 13, 5188 (1976).10.1103/PhysRevB.13.5188 ↗
64. Methfessel, M. & Paxton, A. T. High-precision sampling for Brillouin-zone integration in metals. Phys. Rev. B 40, 3616 (1989).10.1103/PhysRevB.40.3616 ↗
65. Liu, R. et al. Light-induced Mott-insulator-to-metal phase transition in ultrathin intermediate-spin ferromagnetic perovskite ruthenates. Adv. Mater. 35, 2211612 (2023).10.1002/adma.202211612 ↗
66. Aeschlimann, R. et al. A living-dead magnetic layer at the surface of ferrimagnetic DyTiO3 thin films. Adv. Mater. 30, 1707489 (2018).10.1002/adma.201707489 ↗
67. Jang, H. W. et al. Metallic and insulating oxide interfaces controlled by electronic correlations. Science 331, 886–889 (2011).10.1126/science.1198781 ↗
68. Vaz, D. C. et al. Mapping spin–charge conversion to the band structure in a topological oxide two-dimensional electron gas. Nat. Mater. 18, 1187–1193 (2019).10.1038/s41563-019-0467-4 ↗
69. Mallik, S. et al. From low-field Sondheimer oscillations to high-field very large and linear magnetoresistance in a SrTiO3-based two-dimensional electron gas. Nano Lett. 22, 65–72 (2022).10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c03198 ↗
70. Sanchez-Manzano, D. et al. Dataset for ‘Giant photoconductance at infinite-layer nickelate/SrTiO3 interfaces via an optically induced high-mobility electron gas’. Zenodo https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16985730 (2025).10.5281/zenodo.16985730 ↗