LaAlO3

ABSTRACT: LaAlO3 (LAO)/SrTiO3 (STO)/LaAlO3 (LAO) heterostructures were epitaxially deposited on TiO2-terminated (100) SrTiO3 single crystal substrates...
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Largely Enhanced Mobility in Tri-Layered LaAlO3/SrTiO3/LaAlO3 Heterostructures Hailong Hu, Anh Pham, Richard D. Tilley, Rong Zeng, Thiam Teck Tan, Chun-Hua (Charlie) Kong, Richard Webster, Danyang Wang, and Sean Li ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, Just Accepted Manuscript • DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b11218 • Publication Date (Web): 31 May 2018 Downloaded from http://pubs.acs.org on May 31, 2018

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Largely Enhanced Mobility in Tri-Layered LaAlO3/SrTiO3/LaAlO3 Heterostructures Hai-Long Hua, Anh Phama, Richard Tilleyb, Rong Zenga, Thiam Teck Tana, Chun-Hua (Charlie) Kongb, Richard Websterb, Danyang Wanga*, and Sean Lia* a

School of Materials Science & Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South

Wales, 2052, Australia b

Mark Wainwright Analytical Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales,

2052, Australia

ABSTRACT: LaAlO3 (LAO)/SrTiO3 (STO)/LaAlO3 (LAO) heterostructures were epitaxially deposited on TiO2-terminated (100) SrTiO3 single crystal substrates by laser molecular beam epitaxy. The electron Hall mobility of 1.2×104 cm2/Vs at 2 K was obtained in our tri-layered heterostructures grown under 1×10−5 Torr, which was significantly higher than that in single layer 5 uc LAO (∼ 4×103 cm2/Vs) epitaxially grown on (100) STO substrates under the same conditions. It is believed that the enhancement of dielectric permittivity in the polar insulating trilayer can screen the electric field thus reducing the carrier effective mass of the two dimensional electron gas formed at the TiO2 interfacial layer in the substrate, resulting in a largely enhanced mobility, as suggested by the first-principle calculation. Our results will pave the way for designing high mobility oxide nanoelectronic devices based on LAO/STO heterostructures. KEYWORDS: Laser molecular beam epitaxy, LaAlO3/SrTiO3/LaAlO3 heterostructures, dielectric permittivity, carrier effective mass, two dimensional electron gas, electron mobility *Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail: [email protected] and [email protected]. 1

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INTRODUCTION The discovery of two dimensional electron gas (2DEG) at the interface between the two insulating oxides SrTiO3 (STO) and LaAlO3 (LAO) has triggered intensive research in this area due to the remarkable functional properties, such as superconductivity, ferromagnetism and tunable conductivity.

1-5

The electron reconstruction due to a polar discontinuity at the

interface was considered to be the possible origin of 2DEG at LAO/STO interface. mechanisms, such as cation-intermixing across the interface

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6-8

Other

and oxygen deficiency,

10-11

have also been reported to explain the formation of 2DEG at LAO/STO interface. The advances of the microelectronic industry over the last decade have required new devices to exponentially increase their performance by lowering the resistance of the semiconducting materials with simultaneously increased electron mobility.

12-17

Oxides are one of the most

promising material candidates for next generation nanoelectronic materials as they can function at elevated temperatures. Despite the controversy with respect to the origin of 2DEG at the interface of LAO/STO, establishing electron confinement with increased electron mobility in LAO/STO system has become a major focus. Enhancement of mobility in complex oxide 2DEGs remains a very challenging task. The reported electron mobility at the interface between LAO and STO was often just a few thousand cm2/Vs with the sheet carrier density around 1013 cm-2. 18 In order to increase the electron mobility in LAO/STO system, different methods to control defect scattering, surface control,

20

modulation-doping

21

and growth strategies

22-23

19

have been attempted. Up

to date, the highest mobility in LAO/STO 2DEG reported in the literature was ∼104 cm2/Vs at 2 K. 21 In addition to control the growth method, an alternative strategy to improve carrier mobility of the 2D conducting channel in the LAO/STO interface is to increase carrier confinement on 2

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the STO surface by enhancing the dielectric permittivity at the interface of the STO substrate and the LAO layer. Different buffer layers like LaTiO3 and La doped SrTiO3 have been employed to module the carrier screening at the interface of the LAO/STO to enhance the carrier mobility in the 2DEG system. 24-25 Recently, much attention has been paid to the theoretical and experimental studies of LAO/STO/LAO quantum well structure containing two n-type interfaces with the LaO and TiO2 stacking. 26-28 It was predicted that the excess charge of 0.5e at the polar interface might bring a charge ordered phase with dxy orbital polarization or the excess of 0.5e was delocalized throughout this tri-layered heterostructure.

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The multilayered LAO/STO/LAO

system has also been predicted to exhibit topological superconductivity.

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In addition, the

trilayer system includes two LAO layers separated by one STO layer which can significantly modify the electric field on the STO substrate surface due to the large dielectric constant of STO at low temperature.

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Consequently, such a system might have enhanced electron

mobility due to the screening effect originated from large dielectric permittivity in comparison to the conventional LAO/STO heterostructure. 31 In this work, we obtained a high electron Hall mobility and carrier density of 1.2×104 cm2/Vs and 3.0×1013 cm-2 at 2 K, respectively, in a tri-layered LAO/STO/LAO 2DEG. We also theoretically demonstrated the high mobility can be attributed to the enhanced polar field and the reduced carrier effective mass in this particular materials system. The high mobility in our LAO/STO/LAO heterostructures may provide a new paradigm for the development of alloxide nanoelectronic devices, such as tunnel junctions and high mobility field-effect transistors. 32

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EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS The tri-layered LAO/STO/LAO heterostructures were grown on the TiO2-terminated (100) STO single crystal substrates by laser-molecular beam epitaxy (L-MBE) with a KrF excimer laser (λ=248 nm). The thickness of each layer is 5 unit-cells (uc). Single-crystal LAO and STO targets were used for the thin film deposition. The heterostructures were deposited at 850 ℃ under oxygen partial pressure of 1×10−5 Torr. The laser energy density was 1.275 J/cm2 and the repetition rate was 0.5 Hz. The film growth was real-time monitored by in-situ reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED). After deposition, the samples were cooled to room temperature under the deposition oxygen partial pressures at a rate of 20 ℃/min without post-annealing treatment. We also deposited 5 uc LAO thin film, fivelayered (5 uc LAO/5 uc STO/5 uc LAO/5 uc STO/5 uc LAO) and seven-layered (5 uc LAO/5 uc STO/5 uc LAO/5 uc STO/5 uc LAO/5 uc STO/5 uc LAO) heterostructures on TiO2terminated STO (001) substrates under the same conditions for comparison purpose. X-ray diffraction with CuKα radiation and four-bounce Ge (220) monochromator was used to perform crystallographic characterization of the LAO/STO/LAO heterostructures. Surface morphology of the samples was imaged by an atomic force microscopy (AFM, Bruker Dimension ICON SPM) operating in tapping mode. The interfacial structures of LAO/STO heterostructures were analyzed by using the high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy was employed to study the elemental distribution across the interfaces. The sheet resistance, carrier density and hall mobility were measured using the physical property measurement system (PPMS, Quantum Design, San Diego, CA) with

Van-Der-Pauw

(VDP)

geometry.

Direct

contact

with

the

interface

of

heterostructures/STO-substrate was made by aluminum wire using an ultrasonic wire4

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bonding technique. A magnetic field perpendicular to the sample surface up to 10 T was applied to conduct the magnetoresistance measurements. The nominal sheet carrier density n 2 D was determined by the n 2 D =-B/eRxy, where B is applied magnetic field, Rxy is the Hall

resistance, and e is the charge of an electron. The mobility µ was determined from the sheet resistance Rs and n 2 D by µ = 1/ en2D Rs . In order to understand the effect of dielectric permittivity in the two different heterostructures, the dielectric permittivity was measured.

RESULTS and DISCUSSIONS The schematic diagram of the tri-layered, five-layered and seven-layered heterostructures is shown in Figure 1a. Figure 1b shows the AFM image of the tri-layered sample. Typical terrace morphology was observed with a very low surface roughness Ra of ∼ 0.164 nm. Figure 1c shows the XRD theta-2theta patterns of the tri-layered, five-layered and sevenlayered samples. The satellite peaks of superlattice structure were also clearly seen in the spectra. XRD reciprocal space mappings (RSM) around (103) plane of the heterostructures are shown in Figure 1d-1f. Although the peak of STO layer cannot be resolved from the strong STO substrate peak, the characteristic spots of LAO are clearly observed. The satellite spots (marked with “-1, -2, 1 and 2”) are corresponding to the superlattice structure. The thickness of the as-deposited films was determined by RHEED intensity oscillations as shown in Figure 2a. The streaky RHEED patterns shown in Figure 2b and 2c confirmed the layer-by-layer growth mode. Figure 2d shows the scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) image of tri-layered LAO/STO/LAO heterostructures. The highly coherent lattice across the interface was revealed. Atomic-scale energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) spectral mapping was also performed on the sample, indicating a slight cation intermixing at

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the bottom LAO layer. Scanning transmission electron microscopy image and atomic-scale energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy results of seven-layered heterostructures were illustrated in Figure S1. Figure 3a shows the Hall resistance as a function of the applied magnetic field at different temperatures for the tri-layered heterostructure. A linear relationship between the Hall resistance and the applied field in the temperature range from 100 K to 300 K suggests a normal Hall effect. The Hall resistance shows a strong non-linearity against the applied magnetic field at temperatures below 50 K. Such a nonlinear behavior was associated with the double electron channels where spatially separated multi-channel of carriers with different mobilities existed in this tri-layered LAO/STO/LAO heterostructure. A two-band model was used to extract the multichannel conduction arising from the different electronic bands. 33-34 In this model, the magnetic field (B) dependence of hall resistance Rxy (B) can be described as: R xy ( B ) = B[( µ 12 n1 + µ 22 n 2 ) + ( µ 1 µ 2 B ) 2 ( n1 + n 2 )] / e[( µ 1 n1 + µ 2 n 2 ) 2 + ( µ 1 µ 2 B ) 2 ( n1 + n 2 ) 2 ]

(1) The longitudinal resistance Rxx (0) at zero magnetic field can be calculated by:

1 Rxx (0) = (n1µ1 + n2 µ 2 ) e

(2)

where e is the electron charge, B is the applied magnetic field, n1, n2 and µ1, µ2 are carrier density and mobility, respectively. The carrier density n1 and mobility µ1 are associated with the main conducting channels while n2 and µ2 are from the minor conducting channels. The Hall resistance below 50 K can be fitted with the two-band model very well and the resultant data for the carrier density and mobility are shown in Figure 3b and 3c, respectively. These results show that the main channel has a carrier density of ∼1014 cm-2 while the carrier density 6

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of the other channel is 1012–1013 cm-2. The mobilities of the two channels also render one order of magnitude difference. Meanwhile, the mobility µ1 of ∼1.2×104 cm2/Vs at 2 K is very similar to that deduced from the Hall measurement. A lower mobility µ2 of ∼1.5×103 cm2/Vs at 2 K was observed. The carrier mobility of our tri-layered heterostructures is among the highest values of the LAO/STO 2DEG system reported in the literature, given that electron mobility in this LAO/STO system was typically ∼1000 cm2/Vs at 2 K. 18 Figure 4a shows sheet resistance Rs of the tri-layered heterostructure against magnetic field along various directions (φ = 0o, 30o, 60o) measured at 2 K. The inset of Figure 4a shows the angular relationship between the direction of applied magnetic field and sample surface. φ = 0˚ and φ = 90˚ are the out-of-plane and in-plane directions, respectively. It is apparent that the perpendicular component of the applied magnetic field contributed to the 2DEG quantum oscillation. The Shubnikov–de Haas (SdH) oscillation was resulted from the high mobility in the light effective mass subband with low electron carrier density, representing a direct measurement of the area of the Fermi surface.

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After subtracting the magnetoresistance

background, pronounced oscillations as a function of 1/B are shown in Figure 4b. In Figure 4c, the angular dependence of sheet resistance clearly illustrates of the anisotropic nature of tri-layered LAO/STO/LAO. The resistance as a function of sample position φ with respect to applied magnetic field exhibits a dip at 90 and 270 degrees, which is a feature of 2D electron transport.

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The anisotropy and MR were suppressed at temperatures above 100 K. In

addition, a closer look at angular dependence of magnetoresistance at 2 K and 10 T reveals a negative MR with in-plane geometry (90 and 270 degrees) in Figure 4d. Temperature dependence of sheet resistance, sheet carrier density and mobility of this tri-layered LAO/STO/LAO grown under different oxygen partial pressures was also investigated to verify its conducting behavior in Figure S2. In addition, the magnetoresistance behavior of

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this tri-layered LAO/STO/LAO grown under different oxygen partial pressures was systematically studied in Figure S3. In order to understand the nature of the observed high electron mobility, transport properties of a single 5 uc LAO thin film, five-layered and seven-layered were measured. Sheet resistance as a function of temperature for 5 uc LAO was higher than that of the tri-layered heterostructure over the entire measuring temperature range as shown in Figure 5a. Hall resistance Rxy of 5 uc LAO against an applied magnetic field (B) in the sample showed a linear relationship in Figure 5b. This linear relationship between Rxy and the perpendicular applied field suggested a single band mode of transport. In addition, the carrier density between ∼4×1013 cm-2 and 1.5×1014 cm-2 (in Figure 5c) indicated the two-dimensional confined conducting channel.

3

It should be noted that carrier mobility of the tri-layered

sample was largely enhanced compared with that of single 5 uc LAO (Figure 5d). Specifically, the mobility of tri-layered LAO/STO/LAO at 2 K was of ∼1.2×104 cm2/Vs, while it was only ∼4×103 cm2/Vs for single 5 uc LAO. Mobilities of the five-layered and seven-layered heterostructures were both ∼1.3×104 cm2/Vs at 2 K, i.e. no substantial change was observed compared with tri-layered samples. To further understand the mechanisms of the largely enhanced mobility in our tri-layered heterostructures, density functional theory was employed to study the electronic properties of the heterostructures. The first-principle calculations were done using the VASP software with the projected augmented wave method (PAW) generalized gradient approximation

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and the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE)

with an energy cut-off of 450 eV 9×9×1 k-points. To

simulate the electronic properties of the heterostructures, slab configurations were used with 5 uc LAO/5 uc STO/ 5 uc LAO/7 uc STO and 5 uc LAO/7 uc STO with a minimum vacuum layer of 20 Å. The two slab configurations were done with the same volume of the supercell

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to avoid any size effect. The DFT+U method within the Dudarev scheme 39 was used similar to previous study 28 with U=5.0 eV J = 0.7 eV applied on Ti’s d, and U = 9.0 eV J = 1 eV on La’s f orbitals to correct for the localization problem in the PBE functional. The in-plane lattices of the slab structures were set at the bulk SrTiO3 value obtained from the PBE functional (3.94 Å). The carrier effective mass was calculated numerically based on the band structure using

1 1  ∂2E  = 2  2  . The band structure was calculated without the spin-orbit m * h  ∂k 

interaction which results in symmetric effective mass of light electron band along the ΓX and

ΓM directions. As shown in Figure 6, the heterostructures consists of 5 uc LaAlO3/5 uc SrTiO3/5 uc LaAlO3 on the SrTiO3 substrate (7 uc SrTiO3) shows a band alignment effect only between the top AlO2-1 layer and the top TiO2 layer of the substrate. The 2DEG TiO2 interface layer is shown to be spontaneously spin-polarized with a magnetic moment of 0.061 µB/Ti’s. Small magnetic moments are also observed for the O’s p surface (0.032 µB/O’s p) as illustrated in the spin-polarized charge density in Figure 6. This is significantly different from the configuration when only 5 uc LAO is deposited on the STO substrate as shown in Figure 7 where the band alignment occurs between the non-magnetic Ti’s d interface and the surface AlO2-1 of the 5uc LAO film. In addition, it should also be emphasized that second interface between the STO layer the top LAO film is insulating which suggests that there is only one 2DEG in our tri-layered system occurred due to the band alignment between second LAO film and the STO substrate. Since the second LAO layer is separated from the STO substrate by 5uc LAO and 5uc STO film, this can significantly influence the electric field in the two LAO layers in the tri-layered system. In the normal LAO/STO structure, the electric field on the LAO film is estimated to be 0.15 eV/Å based on the slope of macroscopic average electrostatic potential in Figure 8a. This is within the range of 0.15 eV/Å-0.24 eV/Å in the previous studies of the LAO/STO system. 40-42 On the other hand, the two LAO layers in the

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tri-layered system exhibit two significant smaller electric fields of 0.09 eV/Å and 0.085 eV/Å (in Figure 8b) for the layer closest to the STO substrate (7 uc) and the top LAO layer respectively. These significantly smaller values suggest that the inclusion of the STO film in the tri-layered system has screened out the polar field due to the large dielectric permittivity of the STO material in comparison to the LAO layer. To confirm the larger dielectric permittivity in the tri-layered heterostructure, the dielectric permittivity of the LAO (5 uc) /STO (5 uc) /LAO (5 uc) was measured as shown in Figure 9. Our measurement confirms the initial hypothesis that the tri-layered system has a much larger dielectric permittivity than the stand-alone LAO film. Finally, to further understand the influence of the different polar field on the carrier mobility of the 2DEG in the two oxide heterostructures, the band structure and effective mass of the lowest occupied conduction band Ti dxy in the SrTiO3 substrate (7 uc) in the LAO/STO and LAO/STO/LAO/STO systems were calculated as presented in Figure 10. For the single LAO layer on STO substrate, the carrier effective mass is calculated to be 0.389 me (Figure 10a) which is consistent with previous theoretical study of the light electron effective mass in SrTiO3.

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However, this effective mass reduces significantly for the

complex heterostructures LAO/STO/LAO. The light electron effective mass corresponding to the lowest occupied Ti dxy is 0.285 me for the spin-up bands and 0.316 me for the spin-down bands in (Figure 10b). The significantly lower carrier effective mass in the complex heterostructures leads to an improvement in carrier mobility in the tri-layered heterostructure as shown in Figure 5d. Thus it is believed that the carrier transport can be improved by engineering the polar field through enhancing the dielectric permittivity of the polar layer thus resulting in a lower carrier effective mass of the occupied Ti dxy orbital at the LAO/STO heterostructures, leading to the largely enhanced mobility in tri-layered heterostructures.

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CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, epitaxial heterostructures of LAO/STO/LAO were deposited on TiO2 terminated (100) SrTiO3 single substrates by laser molecular beam epitaxy. In contrast to the mobility of ∼103 cm2/Vs in a typical LAO/STO 2DEG at 2 K, a greatly enhanced electron mobility of 1.2×104 cm2/Vs was obtained in our tri-layered heterostructures. Due to the increased dielectric permittivity of the polar layer, the carrier effective mass in the lowest conduction band in this heterostructures was significantly lower than that of a single layer 5uc LAO. Our results suggested that the mobility of the oxide 2DEG system can be largely enhanced by engineering the polar field in the 2DEG through constructing tri-layered LAO/STO/LAO heterostructures. The high mobility of our 2EDG may open a new path for designing all oxide nanoelectronic devices with the LAO/STO heterostructures.

SUPPORTING INFORMATION STEM image and EDX analysis of the seven-layered heterostructures were shown in Figure S1. Temperature dependence of sheet resistance, sheet carrier density and mobility of the trilayered LAO/STO/LAO grown under different oxygen partial pressures was investigated (Figure S2). The magnetoresistance behavior of this tri-layered LAO/STO/LAO grown under different oxygen partial pressures was studied (Figure S3).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The research was supported by the Australian Research Council through projects DP150103006 and DP140104373. This work was performed in part at the NSW Node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility, a company established under the National 11

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(16) Dusastre, V.; Heber, J.; Pulizzi, F.; Stoddart, A.; Pamies, P.; Martin, C. The Interface is Still the Device. Nat. Mater. 2012, 11, 91. (17) Lu, H.; Liao, Z.; Zhang, L.; Yuan, W.; Wang, Y.; Ma, X.; Yu, D. Yu. Reversible Insulator-Metal Transition of LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Interface for Nonvolatile Memory. Sci. Rep. 2013, 3, 2870. (18) Caviglia, A. D.; Gariglio, S.; Cancellieri, C.; Sace´pe´, B.; Fête, A.; Reyren, N.; Gabay, M.; Morpurgo, A. F.; and Triscone, J.-M. Two-Dimensional Quantum Oscillations of the Conductance at LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Interfaces. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2010, 105, 236802. (19) Huijben, M.; Koster, G.; Kruize, M. K.; Wenderich, G. K. S.; Verbeeck, J.; Bals, S.; Slooten, E.; Shi, B.; Molegraaf, H. J. A.; Kleibeuker, J. E.; van Aert, S.; Goedkoop, J. B.; Brinkman, A.; Blank, D. H. A.; Golden, M. S.; van Tendeloo, G.; Hilgenkamp, H.; Rijnders, G. Defect Engineering in Oxide Heterostructures by Enhanced Oxygen Surface Exchange. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2013, 23, 5240-5248.

(20) Xie, Y.; Bell, C.; Hikita, Y.; Harashima, S.; Hwang, H. Y. Enhancing Electron Mobility at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Interface by Surface Control. Adv. Mater. 2013, 25, 4735-4738. (21) Chen, Y. Z.; Trier, F.; Wijnands, T.; Green, R. J.; Gauquelin, N.; Egoavil, R.; Christensen, D. V.; Koster, G.; Huijben, M.; Bovet, N.; Macke, S.; He, F.; Sutarto, R.; Andersen, N. H.; Sulpizio, J. A.; Honig, M.; Prawiroatmodjo, G. E. D. K.; Jespersen, T. S.; Linderoth, S.; Ilani, S.; Verbeeck, J.; Van Tendeloo, G.; Rijnders, G.; Sawatzky, G. A.; Pryds, N. Extreme Mobility Enhancement of Two-Dimensional Electron Gases at Oxide Interfaces by Charge-Transfer-Induced Modulation Doping. Nat. Mater. 2015, 14, 801-806. (22) Fête, A.; Cancellieri, C.; Li, D.; Stornaiuolo, D.; Caviglia, A. D.; Gariglio, S.; Triscone, J. -M. Growth-Induced Electron Mobility Enhancement at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Interface. Appl. Phys. Lett. 2015, 106, 051604.

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(23) Trier, F.; Prawiroatmodjo, G. E. D. K.; Soosten, M.; Christensen, D. V.; Jespersen, T. S.; Chen, Y. Z.; Pryds, N. Patterning of High Mobility Electron Gases at Complex Oxide Interfaces. Appl. Phys. Lett. 2015, 107, 191604. (24) Siemons, W.; Rijnders, M. H., G.; Blank, D. H. A.; Geballe, T. H.; Beasley, M. R.; Koster, G. Dielectric-Permittivity-Driven Charge Carrier Modulation at Oxide Interfaces. Phys. Rev. B 2010, 81, 241308 (R).

(25) Hosoda, M.; Bell, C.; Hikita, Y.; Hwang, H. Y. Compositional and Gate Tuning of the Interfacial Conductivity in LaAlO3/LaTiO3/SrTiO3 Heterostructures. Appl. Phys. Lett. 2013, 102, 091601.

(26) Zhong, Z.; Kelly, P. J. Electronic-Structure–Induced Reconstruction and Magnetic Ordering at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Interface. EPL (Europhysics Letters) 2008, 84, 27001. (27) Moetakef, P.; Jackson, C. A.; Hwang, J.; Balents, L.; Allen, S. J.; Stemmer, S. Toward an Artificial Mott Insulator: Correlations in Confined High-Density Electron Liquids in SrTiO3. Phys. Rev. B 2012, 86, 201102(R). (28)

Doenning

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(33) Kim, J. S.; Seo, S. S. A.; Chisholm, M. F.; Kremer, R. K.; Habermeier, H. -U.; Keimer, B.; Lee, H. N. Nonlinear Hall Effect and Multichannel Conduction in LaTiO3/SrTiO3 Superlattices. Phys. Rev. B 2010, 82, 201407. (34) Guduru, V. K.; McCollam, A.; Jost, A.; Wenderich, S.; Hilgenkamp, H.; Maan, J. C.; Brinkman, A.; Zeitler, U. Thermally Excited Multiband Conduction in LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Heterostructures Exhibiting Magnetic Scattering. Phys. Rev. B 2013, 88, 241301. (35) David, A.; Tian, Y.; Yang, P.; Gao, X.; Lin, W.; Shah, A. B.; Zuo, J. -M.; Prellier, W.; Wu, T. Colossal Positive Magnetoresistance in Surface-Passivated Oxygen-Deficient Strontium Titanite. Sci. Rep. 2015, 5, 10255. (36) Wang, X.; Lü, W. M.; Annadi, A.; Liu, Z. Q.; Gopinadhan, K.; Dhar, S.; Venkatesan, T.; Ariando. Magnetoresistance of Two-Dimensional and Three-Dimensional Electron Gas in LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Heterostructures: Influence of Magnetic Ordering, Interface Scattering, and Dimensionality. Phys. Rev. B 2011, 84, 075312. (37) Blöchl, P. E. Projector Augmented-Wave Method. Phys. Rev. B 1994, 50, 17953-17979. (38) Perdew, J. P.; Burke, K.; Ernzerhof, M. Generalized Gradient Approximation Made Simple. Phys. Rev. Lett. 1996, 77, 3865-3868. (39) Dudarev, S. L.; Botton, G. A.; Savrasov, S. Y.; Humphreys, C. J.; Sutton, A. P. ElectronEnergy-Loss Spectra and the Structural Stability of Nickel Oxide: An LSDA+U Study. Phys. Rev. B 1998, 57, 1505-1509.

(40) Lee, J.; Demkov, A. A. Charge Origin and Localization at the n-Type SrTiO3/LaAlO3 Interface. Phys. Rev. B 2008, 78, 193104. (41) Reinle-Schmitt, M. L.; Cancellieri, C.; Li, D.; Fontaine, D.; Medarde, M.; Pomjakushina, E.; Schneider, C. W.; Gariglio, S.; Ghosez, P.; Triscone, J. M.; Willmott, P. R. Tunable Conductivity Threshold at Polar Oxide Interfaces. Nat. Commun. 2012, 3, 932.

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(42) Zhou, J.; Asmara, T. C.; Yang, M.; Sawatzky, G. A.; Feng, Y. P.; Rusydi, A. Interplay of Electronic Reconstructions, Surface Oxygen Vacancies, and Lattice Distortions in InsulatorMetal Transition of LaAlO3/SrTiO3. Phys. Rev. B 2015, 92, 125423. (43) Janotti, A.; Steiauf, D.; Van de Walle, C. G. Strain Effects on the Electronic Structure of SrTiO3: Toward High Electron Mobilities. Phys. Rev. B 2011, 84, 201304(R).

Figure Captions Figure 1: (a) Schematic diagram of the tri-layered, five-layered and seven-layered heterostructures grown on TiO2-terminated STO substrate; (b) AFM image of tri-layered LAO/STO/LAO grown under 1×10−5 Torr showing step flow surface morphology; (c) XRD θ-2θ diffraction pattern for tri-layered, five-layered and seven-layered LAO/STO heterostructures grown under oxygen partial pressure of 1×10-5 Torr (S is for substrate STO, F is for film LAO, both -1, -2 and 1, 2 are for the first-order superlative satellites); XRD RSM around (103) reflection for (d) tri-layered, (e) five-layered and (f) seven-layered LAO/STO heterostructures grown under 1×10−5 Torr. Figure 2: (a) Typical RHEED intensity oscillations for deposition of tri-layered LAO/STO/LAO on TiO2-terminated STO. RHEED patterns for (b) before deposition and (c) after deposition of tri-layered LAO/STO/LAO grown under oxygen partial pressure of 1×10−5 Torr; (d) high angle annular dark field (HAADF) STEM image and EDX analysis of trilayered LAO/STO/LAO grown under oxygen partial pressure of 1×10−5 Torr. Figure 3: (a) The Hall resistance Rxy of tri-layered LAO/STO/LAO grown under 1×10-5 Torr; (b) Carrier density and (c) mobility as a function of temperature below 50 K. The bold fitting lines based on two-band model are also shown in Figure 3a. 17

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Figure 4: 2D quantum oscillation of the conduction at the interface (LAO/STO) of trilayered LAO/STO/LAO grown under 1×10−5 Torr. (a) Sheet resistance Rs as a function of magnetic fields applied along different directions; ( ϕ is depicted with the directions of both current and applied field being considered, where 0˚ is the out-of-plane and 90˚ is the inplane); (b) Amplitude of the SdH oscillations, ∆RSdH as a function of reciprocal magnetic field 1/B. The measurements were conducted at 2 K. Electrical measurements for 1×10-5 Torr sample: (c) Sheet resistance as a function of angular position at different temperatures at 10 T magnetic field. (d) Magnetoresistance with respect to angular position at 2 K under a magnetic field of 10 T. Figure 5: Comparison of single 5 uc LAO, tri-layered, five-layered and seven-layered LAO/STO heterostructures grown under 1×10−5 Torr on TiO2-terminated STO. (a) Temperature dependence of sheet resistance (Rs); (b) The Hall resistance Rxy of single 5 uc LAO; (c) Temperature dependence of sheet carrier density (ns) and (d) mobility (µ). Figure 6: Spin-polarized charge density and the partial density of states with the contribution of Ti’s d and O’s p of the tri-layered 5 uc LaAlO3/5 uc SrTiO3/5 uc LaAlO3/7 uc SrTiO3. Figure 7: The partial density of states with the contribution of Ti’s d and O’s p of the 5 uc LaAlO3 /7 uc SrTiO3. Figure 8: Electrostatic potential and its average for a) STO/LAO structure and b) tri-layered STO/LAO/STO/LAO heterostructures. The in-plane average was calculated for a lattice 3.94 Å. Figure 9: Dielectric permittivity measured at room temperature for single layer 5 uc LAO and tri-layered 5 uc LaAlO3/5 uc SrTiO3/5 uc LaAlO3. Repeated measurements (labelled first and second) were performed to confirm the results. 18

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Figure 10: Band structure and carrier effective mass of the lowest occupied conduction band for (a) LAO/STO configuration, and (b) tri-layered LAO/STO/LAO/STO configuration.

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Figure 1: (a) Schematic diagram of the tri-layered, five-layered and seven-layered heterostructures grown on TiO2-terminated STO substrate; (b) AFM image of tri-layered LAO/STO/LAO grown under 1x10^-5 Torr showing step flow surface morphology; (c) XRD theta-2theta diffraction pattern for tri-layered, five-layered and seven-layered LAO/STO heterostructures grown under oxygen partial pressure of 1x10^-5 Torr (S is for substrate STO, F is for film LAO, both -1, -2 and 1, 2 are for the first-order superlative satellites); XRD RSM around (103) reflection for (d) tri-layered, (e) five-layered and (f) seven-layered LAO/STO heterostructures grown under 1x10^-5 Torr. 99x117mm (300 x 300 DPI)

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Figure 2: (a) Typical RHEED intensity oscillations for deposition of tri-layered LAO/STO/LAO on TiO2terminated STO. RHEED patterns for (b) before deposition and (c) after deposition of tri-layered LAO/STO/LAO grown under oxygen partial pressure of 1x10^-5 Torr; (d) high angle annular dark field (HAADF) STEM image and EDX analysis of tri-layered LAO/STO/LAO grown under oxygen partial pressure of 1x10^-5 Torr. 82x86mm (300 x 300 DPI)

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Figure 3: (a) The Hall resistance Rxy of tri-layered LAO/STO/LAO grown under 1x10^-5 Torr; (b) Carrier density and (c) mobility as a function of temperature below 50 K. The bold fitting lines based on two-band model are also shown in Figure 3a. 99x75mm (300 x 300 DPI)

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Figure 4: 2D quantum oscillation of the conduction at the interface (LAO/STO) of tri-layered LAO/STO/LAO grown under 1x10^-5 Torr. (a) Sheet resistance Rs as a function of magnetic fields applied along different directions; ( φ is depicted with the directions of both current and applied field being considered, where 0˚ is the out-of-plane and 90˚ is the in-plane); (b) Amplitude of the SdH oscillations, ∆RSdH as a function of reciprocal magnetic field 1/B. The measurements were conducted at 2 K. Electrical measurements for 1x10^-5 Torr sample: (c) Sheet resistance as a function of angular position at different temperatures at 10 T magnetic field. (d) Magnetoresistance with respect to angular position at 2 K under a magnetic field of 10 T. 99x74mm (300 x 300 DPI)

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Figure 5: Comparison of single 5 uc LAO, tri-layered, five-layered and seven-layered LAO/STO heterostructures grown under 1x10^-5 Torr on TiO2-terminated STO. (a) Temperature dependence of sheet resistance (Rs); (b) The Hall resistance Rxy of single 5 uc LAO; (c) Temperature dependence of sheet carrier density (ns) and (d) mobility (µ). 99x73mm (300 x 300 DPI)

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Figure 6: Spin-polarized charge density and the partial density of states with the contribution of Ti’s d and O’s p of the tri-layered 5 uc LaAlO3/5 uc SrTiO3/5 uc LaAlO3/7 uc SrTiO3. 99x30mm (300 x 300 DPI)

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Figure 7: The partial density of states with the contribution of Ti’s d and O’s p of the 5 uc LaAlO3 /7 uc SrTiO3. 99x41mm (300 x 300 DPI)

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Figure 8: Electrostatic potential and its average for a) STO/LAO structure and b) tri-layered STO/LAO/STO/LAO heterostructures. The in-plane average was calculated for a lattice 3.94 Å. 99x78mm (300 x 300 DPI)

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Figure 9: Dielectric permittivity measured at room temperature for single layer 5 uc LAO and tri-layered 5 uc LaAlO3/5 uc SrTiO3/5 uc LaAlO3. Twice measurements (labelled first and second) were performed to confirm the final results. 288x202mm (300 x 300 DPI)

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Figure 10: Band structure and carrier effective mass of the lowest occupied conduction band for (a) LAO/STO configuration, and (b) tri-layered LAO/STO/LAO/STO configuration. 99x33mm (300 x 300 DPI)

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