1 Overview 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.1.1 Oxide growth techniques are rooted in search for high-Tc superconductors 2 1.1.2 First reports of interface conductivity 2 1.2 2D physics 2 1.3 Emergent properties of oxide heterostructures and nanostructures 3 1.4 Outline 3 2 Relevant properties of SrTiO3 3 2.1 Structural properties and transitions 3 2.2 Ferroelectricity, Paraelectricity and Quantum Paraelectricity 4 2.3 Electronic structure 5 2.4 Defects 6 2.4.1 Oxygen vacancies 6 2.4.2 Terraces 7 2.5 Superconductivity 7 3 SrTiO3-based heterostructures and nanostructures 8 3.1 Varieties of heterostructures 8 3.1.1 SrTiO3 only 9 3.1.2 LaAlO3/SrTiO3 9 3.1.3 Other heterostructures formed with SrTiO3 10 3.2 Thin-film growth 10 3.2.1 Substrates 10 3.2.2 SrTiO3 surface treatment 11 3.2.3 Pulsed Laser Deposition 11 3.2.4 Atomic Layer Deposition 13 3.2.5 Molecular Beam Epitaxy 14 3.2.6 Sputtering 15 3.3 Device Fabrication 15 3.3.1 "Conventional" photolithography - Thickness Modulation, hard masks, etc. 15 3.3.2 Ion beam irradiation 16 3.3.3 Conductive-AFM lithography 16 4 Properties and phase diagram of LaAlO3/SrTiO3 16 4.1 Insulating state 16 4.2 Conducting state 17 4.2.1 Confinement thickness (the depth profile of the 2DEG) 17 4.3 Metal-insulator transition and critical thickness 18 4.3.1 Polar catastrophe ( electronic reconstruction) 18 4.3.2 Oxygen Vacancies 19 4.3.3 Interdiffusion 20 4.3.4 Polar Interdiffusion + oxygen vacancies + antisite pairs 20 4.3.5 Role of surface adsorbates 21 4.3.6 Hidden FE like distortion - Strain induced instability 21 4.4 Structural properties and transitions 21 4.5 Electronic band structure 22 4.5.1 Theory 22 4.5.2 Experiment 23 4.5.3 Lifshitz transition 24 4.6 Defects, doping, and compensation 25 4.7 Magnetism 25 4.7.1 Experimental evidence 25 4.7.2 Two types of magnetism 27 4.7.3 Ferromagnetism 27 4.7.4 Metamagnetism 28 4.8 Superconductivity 28 4.9 Optical properties 29 4.9.1 Photoluminesce experiments 29 4.9.2 Second Harmonic Generation 29 4.10 Coexistence of superconductivity and magnetism 30 4.11 Magnetic and conducting phases 30 5 Quantum transport in LaAlO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures and microstructures 31 5.1 2D transport 31 5.2 Inhomogeneous Transport 31 5.3 Anisotropic Magnetoresistance 32 5.4 Spin-orbit coupling 32 5.5 Anomalous Hall Effect 34 5.6 Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) Oscillation 35 5.7 Quantum Hall Effect 37 5.8 Spintronic Effects 38 6 Quantum transport in LaAlO3/SrTiO3 nanostructures 39 6.1 Quasi-1D Superconductivity 39 6.2 Universal conductance fluctuations 40 6.3 Dissipationless Electronic Waveguides 40 6.4 Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices (SQUID) 41 6.5 Electron pairing without superconductivity 41 6.6 Tun...

The combination of non-trivial band topology and symmetry breaking phases gives rise to novel quantum states and phenomena such as topological superconductivity, quantum anomalous Hall effect and axion electrodynamics. Evidence of intertwined charge density wave (CDW) and superconducting order parameters has recently been observed in a novel kagome material AV3Sb5 (A=K,Rb,Cs) that features a Z2 topological invariant in the electronic structure. However, the origin of the CDW and its intricate interplay with topological state has yet to be determined. Here, using hard x-ray scattering, we demonstrate a three-dimensional (3D) CDW with 2 × 2 × 2 superstructure in (Rb,Cs)V3Sb5. Unexpectedly, we find that the CDW fails to induce acoustic phonon anomalies at the CDW wavevector but yields a novel Raman mode that quickly damps into a broad continuum below the CDW transition temperature. Our observations exclude strong electron-phonon coupling driven CDW in AV3Sb5 and point to an unconventional particle-hole condensation mechanism that couples CDW, superconductivity and topological band structure.

Abstract:Investigations that probe defects one at a time offer a unique opportunity to observe properties and dynamics that are washed out of ensemble measurements. Here we present confocal fluorescence measurements of individual defects in Al-doped ZnO nanoparticles and undoped ZnO sputtered films that are excited with sub-bandgap energy light. Photon correlation measurements yield both antibunching and bunching, indicative of single-photon emission from isolated defects that possess a metastable shelving state. The single-photon emission is in the range ~560 -720 nm and typically exhibits two broad spectral peaks separated by ~150 meV. The excited state lifetimes range from 1 -13 ns, consistent with the finite-size and surface effects of nanoparticles and small grains. We also observe discrete jumps in the fluorescence intensity between a bright state and a dark state. The dwell times in each state are exponentially distributed and the average dwell time in the bright (dark) state does (may) depend on the power of the exciting laser. Taken together, our measurements demonstrate the utility of a single-molecule approach to semiconductor defect studies and highlight ZnO as a potential host material for single-defect based applications.

We examine superconductivity in LaAlO_{3}/SrTiO_{3} channels with widths that transition from the 1D to the 2D regime. The superconducting critical current is independent of the channel width and increases approximately linearly with the number of parallel channels. Signatures of electron pairing outside of the superconducting regime are also found to be independent of the channel width. Collectively, these results indicate that superconductivity exists at the boundary of these channels and is absent within the interior region of the channels. The intrinsic 1D nature of superconductivity at the LaAlO_{3}/SrTiO_{3} interface imposes strong physical constraints on possible electron pairing mechanisms.

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We report the growth of the intrinsic magnetic topological system MnTe(Bi2Te3)n by molecular beam epitaxy. By mapping the temperature and the Bi:Mn flux ratio, it is shown that there is a narrow growth window for the n=1 phase MnBi2Te4 with 2.0

Quantum materials (QMs) with strong correlation and nontrivial topology are indispensable to next-generation information and computing technologies. Exploitation of topological band structure is an ideal starting point to realize correlated topological QMs. Here, we report that strain-induced symmetry modification in correlated oxide SrNbO 3 thin films creates an emerging topological band structure. Dirac electrons in strained SrNbO 3 films reveal ultrahigh mobility ( max ≈ 100,000 cm 2 /Vs), exceptionally small effective mass (m* ~ 0.04m e ), and nonzero Berry phase. Strained SrNbO 3 films reach the extreme quantum limit, exhibiting a sign of fractional occupation of Landau levels and giant mass enhancement. Our results suggest that symmetry-modified SrNbO 3 is a rare example of correlated oxide Dirac semimetals, in which strong correlation of Dirac electrons leads to the realization of a novel correlated topological QM.

The electronic instabilities in CsV3Sb5 are believed to originate from the V 3d-electrons on the kagome plane, however the role of Sb 5p-electrons for 3-dimensional orders is largely unexplored. Here, using resonant tender X-ray scattering and high-pressure X-ray scattering, we report a rare realization of conjoined charge density waves (CDWs) in CsV3Sb5, where a 2 × 2 × 1 CDW in the kagome sublattice and a Sb 5p-electron assisted 2 × 2 × 2 CDW coexist. At ambient pressure, we discover a resonant enhancement on Sb L1-edge (2s→5p) at the 2 × 2 × 2 CDW wavevectors. The resonance, however, is absent at the 2 × 2 × 1 CDW wavevectors. Applying hydrostatic pressure, CDW transition temperatures are separated, where the 2 × 2 × 2 CDW emerges 4 K above the 2 × 2 × 1 CDW at 1 GPa. These observations demonstrate that symmetry-breaking phases in CsV3Sb5 go beyond the minimal framework of kagome electronic bands near van Hove filling.