Oxide heterointerfaces constitute a rich platform for realizing novel functionalities in condensed matter. A key aspect is the strong link between structural and electronic properties, which can be modified by interfacing materials with distinct lattice symmetries. Here, we determine the effect of the cubic-tetragonal distortion of SrTiO₃ on the electronic properties of thin films of SrIrO₃, a topological crystalline metal hosting a delicate interplay between spin-orbit coupling and electronic correlations. We demonstrate that below the transition temperature at 105 K, SrIrO₃ orthorhombic domains couple directly to tetragonal domains in SrTiO₃. This forces the in-phase rotational axis to lie in-plane and creates a binary domain structure in the SrIrO₃ film. The close proximity to the metal-insulator transition in ultrathin SrIrO₃ causes the individual domains to have strongly anisotropic transport properties, driven by a reduction of bandwidth along the in-phase axis. The strong structure-property relationships in perovskites make these compounds particularly suitable for static and dynamic coupling at interfaces, providing a promising route towards realizing novel functionalities in oxide heterostructures.

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Ultrafast photodoping of the Mott insulators, possessing strong correlation between electronic and magnetic degrees of freedom, holds promise for launching an ultrafast dynamics of spins which cannot be described in terms of conventional models of ultrafast magnetism. Here we study the ultrafast laser-induced dynamics of the magnetic order in a novel spin-orbit Mott insulator Sr2IrO4 featuring an uncompensated pattern of antiferromagnetic spin ordering. Using the transient magneto-optical Kerr effect sensitive to the net magnetization, we reveal that photodoping by femtosecond laser pulses with photon energy above the Mott gap launches melting of the antiferromagnetic order seen as ultrafast demagnetization with a characteristic time of 300 fs followed by a sub-10-ps recovery. Nonequilibrium dynamical mean-field theory calculations based on the single-band Hubbard model confirm that ultrafast demagnetization is primarily governed by the laser-induced generation of electron-hole pairs, although the precise simulated time dependencies are rather different from the experimentally observed ones. To describe the experimental results, here we suggest a phenomenological model which is based on Onsager's formalism and accounts for the photogenerated electron-hole pairs using the concepts of holons and doublons.

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Within the last twenty years, the status of the spinorbit interaction has evolved from that of a simple atomic contribution to a key effect that modifies the electronic band structure of materials. It is regarded as one of the basic ingredients for spintronics, locking together charge and spin degrees of freedom and recently it is instrumental in promoting a new class of compounds, the topological insulators. In this review, we present the current status of the research on the spinorbit coupling in transition metal oxides, discussing the case of two semiconducting compounds, SrTiO₃and KTaO₃, and the properties of surface and interfaces based on these. We conclude with the investigation of topological effects predicted to occur in different complex oxides.

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Obtaining high-quality thin films of 5d transition metal oxides is essential to explore the exotic semimetallic and topological phases predicted to arise from the combination of strong electron correlations and spin-orbit coupling. Here, we show that the transport properties of SrIrO₃ thin films, grown by pulsed laser deposition, can be optimized by considering the effect of laser-induced modification of the SrIrO₃ target surface. We further demonstrate that bare SrIrO₃ thin films are subject to degradation in air and are highly sensitive to lithographic processing. A crystalline SrTiO₃ cap layer deposited in-situ is effective in preserving the film quality, allowing us to measure metallic transport behavior in films with thicknesses down to 4 unit cells. In addition, the SrTiO₃ encapsulation enables the fabrication of devices such as Hall bars without altering the film properties, allowing precise (magneto)transport measurements on micro- and nanoscale devices.

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We have studied the electronic properties of the 2D electron liquid present at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface in series of samples prepared at different growth temperatures. We observe that interfaces fabricated at 650 °C exhibit the highest low temperature mobility (≈ 10 000 cm 2 V-1 s-1) and the lowest sheet carrier density (≈ 5 × 10 12 cm-2). These samples show metallic behavior and Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in their magnetoresistance. Samples grown at higher temperatures (800-900 °C) display carrier densities in the range of ≈ 2-5 × 10 13 cm-2 and mobilities of ≈ 1000 cm 2 V-1 s-1 at 4 K. Reducing their carrier density by field effect to 8 × 10 12 cm-2 lowers their mobilities to ≈ 50 cm 2 V-1 s-1 bringing the conductance to the weak-localization regime.@en