Manipulation of Electric Field Effect by Orbital Switch

The semiconductor industry has seen a remarkable miniaturization trend, where the size of microelectronic circuit components is expected to reach the scale of atom even subatom. Here, an orbital switch formed at the interface between BaTiO₃ (BTO) and La_0.5Sr_0.5MnO₃ (LSMO) is used to manipulate the electric field effect in the LSMO/BTO heterostructure. The orbital switch is based on the connection or breakdown of interfacial Ti–O–Mn bond due to the ferroelectric displacement under external electric field. This finding would pave the way for the tuning of the material performance or device operation at atomic level and introducing the orbital degree of freedom into the terrain of microelectronics.