Search

Metal-oxygen bonds are responsible for a broad spectrum of functional properties of transition-metal oxides, and engineering the bonds is a key for exploring their properties. Artificial oxide heterostructures with chemically abrupt interfaces have provided a platform for engineering bonding geometries that could lead to emergent phenomena not seen in bulk oxides. In this paper, we demonstrate that interfacially engineering oxygen displacement is a good route for exploring structural and functional properties of oxides. Our highresolution annular bright-field scanning transmission electron microscopy observations revealed that interfacial oxygen displacement determines metal-oxygen bond angles in entire heterostructures and the magnitude of the displacements can be adjusted by controlling propagations of the oxygen octahedral rotations across the heterointerface. We also show that by heterostructuring an itinerant ferromagnet SrRuO3 with Ca0.5Sr0.5TiO3 (0–4 monolayers thick) grown on a GdScO3 substrate, structural phase and magnetic anisotropy of SrRuO3 can be controlled through the interfacial engineering of its oxygen displacement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oxygen coordination environments in transition metal oxides often underpin a variety of structural and physical properties. Engineering the oxygen environments in oxide heterostructures is therefore a key for exploring novel phenomena but also for developing novel oxide-based electronic devices. In this article, we present, by ABF-STEM, direct observations of the oxygen coordination environments in heterostructures consisting of perovskite oxides SrRuO3 and GdScO3. We also show that the oxygen coordination environments and magneto-transport properties of the entire SrRuO3 layer can be engineered through the heterointerface structures. The results demonstrate that the oxygen coordination environments can be used as a parameter controlling additional degrees of freedom in functional oxide heterostructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]