Anomalous orbital structure in a spinel–perovskite interface

• DOI: 10.1038/npjquantmats.2016.9
• Publication Date: 2016-08-12T08:57:13Z
• Authors: Yanwei Cao; Xiaoran Liu; Padraic Shafer; Srimanta Middey; Derek Meyers; Mikhail Kareev; Zhicheng Zhong; Jong-Woo Kim; Philip J Ryan; Elke Arenholz; Jak Chakhalian
• Keywords: Crystal (programming language)

In all archetypical reported (001)-oriented perovskite heterostructures, it has been deduced that the preferential occupation of two-dimensional electron gases is in-plane $d_\textrm{xy}$ state. sharp contrast to this, investigated electronic structure a spinel-perovskite heterostructure $\gamma$-Al$_2$O$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ by resonant soft X-ray linear dichroism, demonstrates out-of-plane $d_\textrm{xz}$/$d_\textrm{yz}$ states for interfacial electrons. Moreover, impact strain further corroborates this anomalous orbital can be linked altered crystal field at interface and symmetry breaking structural units. Our findings provide another interesting route engineer emergent quantum with deterministic symmetry.