Two-dimensional superconductivity at a Mott insulator/band insulator interface LaTiO3/SrTiO3

Abstract

Transition metal oxides show a great variety of quantum electronic behaviours where correlations often have an important role. The achievement of high-quality epitaxial interfaces involving such materials gives a unique opportunity to engineer artificial structures where new electronic orders take place. One of the most striking result in this area is the recent observation of a two-dimensional electron gas at the interface between a strongly correlated Mott insulator LaTiO(3) and a band insulator SrTiO(3). The mechanism responsible for such a behaviour is still under debate. In particular, the influence of the nature of the insulator has to be clarified. In this article, we show that despite the expected electronic correlations, LaTiO(3)/SrTiO(3) heterostructures undergo a superconducting transition at a critical temperature T(c)(onset)~300 mK. We have found that the superconducting electron gas is confined over a typical thickness of 12 nm and is located mostly on the SrTiO(3) substrate.