Cryogenic Piezoresponse Force Microscopy of LAO/STO nanostructures*

LaAlO₃ (LAO) and SrTiO₃ (STO) nanostructures exhibit a myriad of electromechanical properties that offer great promise for application toward quantum computation and devices. Since most LAO/STO nanostructures, such as quantum dots (QDs) or single electron transistors (SETs), operate best at cryogenic temperatures^₁, low temperature SPM measurements are needed for probing LAO/STO devices. For our devices, we will use Piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM), a non-destructive measurement technique that can reveal “hidden” electronic properties^₂. By using PFM, we plan to simultaneously measure low temperature conductance and PFM, in hopes of better understanding the strain and carrier density relation of LAO/STO nanostructures, in order to achieve more control over LAO/STO based quantum devices, such as 2D QD arrays.

[1] C. Cen, S. Thiel, J. Mannhart, and J. Levy,  Science 323(5917), 1026 (2009).

[2] M. Huang, F. Bi, S. Ryu, C.-B. Eom, P. Irvin and J. Levy, APL Mater., 2013, 1, 052110