Magnetically Tuned Metal-Insulator Transition in LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ Nanowire Arrays

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a magnetically tunable metal-insulator transition in LaAlO3/SrTiO3 nanowire arrays, providing insights into correlated materials and potential for analog quantum simulation.

Contribution

It introduces a controllable nanowire array system at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface with a minimal coupled-wire model explaining the transition.

Findings

Magnetically induced four-order magnitude increase in transverse resistance.

Development of a minimal coupled two-wire model matching experimental data.

Nanowire arrays as a platform for studying exotic correlated material behaviors.

Abstract

A wide family of two dimensional (2D) systems, including stripe-phase superconductors, sliding Luttinger liquids, and anisotropic 2D materials, can be modeled by an array of coupled one-dimensional (1D) electron channels or nanowire arrays. Here we report experiments in arrays of conducting nanowires with gate and field tunable interwire coupling, that are programmed at the LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ interface. We find a magnetically-tuned metal-to-insulator transition in which the transverse resistance of the nanowire array increases by up to four orders of magnitude. To explain this behavior, we develop a minimal model of a coupled two-wire system which agrees well with observed phenomena. These nanowire arrays can serve as a model systems to understand the origin of exotic behavior in correlated materials via analog quantum simulation.