Interface control of electronic transport across the magnetic phase transition in SrRuO_3/SrTiO_3 heterointerface

TL;DR

This study investigates how interface geometry and electronic structure changes at the SrRuO_3/SrTiO_3 heterointerface influence electron transport across the magnetic phase transition, revealing mechanisms relevant for spintronic device control.

Contribution

It demonstrates that interface reconstructions and electronic structure modifications dominate transport changes across the magnetic transition in SrRuO_3, combining nanoscale experiments and first-principles calculations.

Findings

Interface reconstructions significantly affect electron transmission.

Electronic structure modifications flip the charge-transport length-scale.

Transport properties are strongly linked to magnetic phase transition.

Abstract

The emerging material class of complex-oxides, where manipulation of physical properties lead to new functionalities at their heterointerfaces, is expected to open new frontiers in Spintronics. For example, SrRuO_3 is a promising material where external stimuli like strain, temperature and structural distortions control the stability of electronic and magnetic states, across its magnetic phase transition, useful for Spintronics. Despite this, not much has been studied to understand such correlations in SrRuO_3. Here we explore the influence of electron-lattice correlation to electron-transport, at interfaces between SrRuO_3 and Nb:SrTiO_3 across its ferromagnetic transition, using a nanoscale transport probe and first-principles calculations. We find that the geometrical reconstructions at the interface and hence modifications in electronic structures dominate the transmission across its ferromagnetic transition, eventually flipping the charge-transport length-scale in SrRuO_3. This approach can be easily extended to other devices where competing ground states can lead to different functional properties across their heterointerfaces.