Condensation of two-dimensional oxide-interfacial charges into one-dimensional electron chains by the misfit-dislocation strain field

Abstract

The success of semiconductor technology is largely ascribed to controlled impacts of strains and defects on the two-dimensional interfacial charges. Interfacial charges also appear in oxide heterojunctions such as LaAlO3/SrTiO3 and (Nd0.35Sr0.65)MnO3/SrTiO3. How the localized strain field of one-dimensional misfit dislocations, defects resulting from the intrinsic misfit strains, would affect the extended oxide-interfacial charges is intriguing and remains unresolved. Here we show the atomic-scale observation of one-dimensional electron chains formed in (Nd0.35Sr0.65)MnO3/SrTiO3 by the condensation of characteristic two-dimensional interfacial charges into the strain field of periodically arrayed misfit dislocations, using chemical mapping and quantification by scanning transmission electron microscopy. The strain-relaxed inter-dislocation regions are readily charge depleted, otherwise decorated by the pristine charges, and the corresponding total-energy calculations unravel the undocumented charge-reservoir role played by the dislocation-strain field. This two-dimensional-to-one-dimensional electronic condensation represents a novel electronic-inhomogeneity mechanism at oxide interfaces and could stimulate further studies of one-dimensional electron density in oxide heterostructures.