Highlight: Probing a complex oxide interface directly

While powerful spatially resolved tools exist for visualizing the chemical and magnetic structure of an interface, direct observation of electronic behavior across the interface presents a major experimental challenge.

The scientists harnessed the high sensitivity to electronic local density of states (LDOS) of cross-sectional scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (XSTM/S) to visualize electronic properties at the interface between colossal magnetoresistant manganite La_2/3Ca_1/3MnO₃ and semiconducting Nb-doped SrTiO₃.

By extending XSTM/S to the interface, they mapped the LDOS across the boundary, unambiguously visualizing the interface by the location of the valence band, and elucidated the fundamental issue of band alignment at a complex oxide heterointerface.

More information: T.Y. Chien, J. Liu, J. Chakhalian, N. P. Guisinger, and J. W. Freeland, Phys. Rev. B, 82, 041101(R) (2010). Editor’s Suggestion

Provided by Argonne National Laboratory (news : web)