Combining Orders in Oxide Heterostructures

Ferroelectricity, ferromagnetism, and superconductivity are typically unrelated phenomena due to their conflicting requirements. During my PhD, I focused on combining such phenomena through interface design, where orders formed at the constituent materials could overlap and interact. I will present two of my works that explore this idea:

1.    In the first work, a two-dimensional superconductor was realized on the surface of a bulk ferroelectric crystal (Ca-substituted SrTiO₃). We show that superconductivity can be tuned by switching ferroelectric polarization. Moreover, the conducting interface constrained the polarization and domain tiling near the surface of the ferroelectric material.

2.    In the second work, we design a conducting interface between a ferroelectric material and a thin magnetic layer of EuTiO₃. We demonstrate that the conducting layer residing at the interface is affected by both magnetic scatterings and ferroelectric switching.

Combining such phenomena through interface design furthers our understanding of unconventional superconductivity and multiferroic systems.

1. Tuvia, G., Frenkel, Y., Rout, P. K., Silber, I., Kalisky, B., & Dagan, Y. Ferroelectric Exchange Bias Affects Interfacial Electronic States. Adv. Mater 2000216 (2020)

2. Tuvia, G., Weitz Sobleman, S., Sandik, S., Kalisky, B., & Dagan, Y. Tunable Magnetic Scattering and Ferroelectric Switching at the LaAlO3/EuTiO3/Sr0.99Ca0.01TiO3 Interface. Phys. Rev. Materials 6, 074408 (2022)