To improve electronic devices, scientists are on the hunt for new semiconductor materials, which control the flow of electricity. A group of scientists were recently surprised to find the interface of two particular complex oxides — the polar lanthanum chromium oxide, LaCrO3, and the nonpolar strontium titanium oxide, SrTiO3 — did not conduct electricity.
A hypothesis from the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University College London in Britain challenges the reasoning that many use to explain conductivity at the interface of complex oxides.
"These results suggest that the popular electronic reconstruction model is too simplistic to be as universal is it is claimed to be," said PNNL Laboratory Fellow Scott Chambers, the paper's lead author. "Interfaces of polar and nonpolar oxides are extraordinarily complex and they defy simplistic explanations. However, with sufficiently detailed understanding of their properties, this phenomenon can be understood, and may be useful for some novel electronic applications that cannot be done with conventional semiconductors such as silicon."
Also: Learn about an instrument that measuresthermal conductivity of materials at low temperatures.
