Magnetotransport in nanowires realised at the LaAlO₃/SrTiO₃ interface

The electron system confined at the interface between LaAlO₃ and SrTiO₃ displays rich physics and has been extensively studied in the last ten years. The conducting electrons populate the Ti 3d bands, they display signatures of a 2D character and a strong Rashba spin-orbit interaction. At around 300 mK they undergo a superconducting transition and the electronic properties can be tuned by field-effect.
The LaAlO₃/ SrTiO₃ interface is thus an ideal playground for the study of the interplay between dimensionality effects and complex oxide physics.
We present here a study of the electronic transport properties of conducting nanowires realised using optical and electron beam lithography for channel width down to 500 nm and with the AFM-writing technique [1] for widths down to ~50 nm.
We compare the behavior of AFM-written lines with that of conducting channels realised by standard lithography methods with the purpose of understanding the dimensional crossover that is expected to occur when the lateral dimension of the channels is reduced and becomes comparable with the transport scattering length-scales.


[1] Cen, C. et al., Nat Mater 7, 298–302 (2008).