Extreme Reconfigurable Nanoelectronics at the CaZrO₃ /SrTiO₃ Interface

Complex oxide heterostructures have fascinating emergent properties that originate from the properties of the bulk constituents as well as from dimensional confinement. The conductive behavior of the polar/nonpolar LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface can be reversibly switched using conductive atomic force microscopy (c‐AFM) lithography, enabling a wide range of devices and physics to be explored.

Here, extreme nanoscale control over the CaZrO3/SrTiO3 (CZO/STO) interface, which is formed from two materials that are both nonpolar, is reported. Nanowires with measured widths as narrow as 1.2 nm are realized at the CZO/STO interface at room temperature by c‐AFM lithography. These ultrathin nanostructures have spatial dimensions at room temperature that are comparable to single‐walled carbon nanotubes, and hold great promise for alternative oxide‐based nanoelectronics, as well as offer new opportunities to investigate the electronic structure of the complex oxide interfaces.

The cryogenic properties of devices constructed from quasi‐1D channels, tunnel barriers, and planar gates exhibit gate‐tunable superconductivity, quantum oscillations, electron pairing outside of the superconducting regime, and quasi‐ballistic transport. This newly demonstrated ability to control the metal–insulator transition at nonpolar oxide interface greatly expands the class of materials whose behavior can be patterned and reconfigured at extreme nanoscale dimensions.