Nanoelectronics

Transition metal oxide heterostructures (TMOs) are fascinating material combinations which can exist in different chemical and crystalline structures, each having fascinating physical properties spanning from ferroelectricity, magnetism, high-temperature superconductivity to colossal magnetoresistance. Complex TMOs offer a broad variety of research themes by tailoring their interfaces with atomic precision and the complex interactions between spin, charge and orbital degrees of freedom. Charge transfer, electrostatic coupling, symmetry breaking, frustration and strain enable the observation of different physical phenomena, e.g. the electrical properties in such heterostructures can be tuned from insulating to conducting to superconducting. The rich complexity and variety makes TMO-based devices interesting for integrated devices in state-of-the-art electronic circuits, e.g. complex oxide-based field effect transistors and ring oscillators, or for environmental monitoring. Complex TMOs also offer the potential to be employed for future information and quantum information processing (oxide spintronics and topological insulators). The broad spectrum of complex oxides based applications emerges from their crystalline structure and through the breaking of fundamental symmetries at their interfaces. We are interested in the rich physics offered by these materials and our research is centered around the fabrication of highest quality transition metal oxide heterostructures with precise interface engineering by molecular beam epitaxy. The field of TMO heterostructures now emerges into an exciting research field, in which further tuning their exceptional properties give insights to hidden phases and emergent physical phenomena.