Structural and electronic behavior of quantum confined ruthenate heterostructures

Unconventional superconductivity in Sr₂RuO₄ has been widely studied over the past decades. After the prediction of majorana fermions, potential quantum information science applications in odd parity superconductors is of great interest. However, the assumption of little or no interaction between isolated RuO₂ layers has not been experimentally verified due to the lack of bulk Ruddlesden-Popper phases with varied separation between electronically active sheets. To solve this outstanding question, epitaxial heterostructures of SrRuO₃ and SrTiO₃ as a means to create artificial analogues to bulk Sr₂RuO₄ were synthesized using pulsed laser deposition. Here, single unit cells of SrRuO₃ were isolated by varying numbers of inert SrTiO₃ layers. In this talk, we report the structural and electronic properties of 1SrRuO₃/nSrTiO₃ superlattices based on the relative thickness of inert layers. These findings highlight the potential importance of interlayer coupling for the observed behavior in 2D layered superconductors.