Electron gas on insulator's surface opens way to multifunctional transistors
French researchers have succeeded in creating a conductive layer on the surface of strontium titanate (SrTiO3), a transparent insulating material considered to be very promising for the development of future microelectronics applications. Two nanometers thick, this conductive layer is a two-dimensional metallic electron gas (2DEG) that is part of the insulating material. Easy to produce, it opens new possibilities for electronics based on transition metal oxides (the SrTiO3 family), taking advantage of these materials' vast range of physical properties (superconductivity, magnetism, thermoelectricity, etc.) to integrate a number of different functions in a single microelectronic device. A paper explaining this unexpected discovery, arising from research at the SOLEIL synchrotron, was published in the January 13, 2011 issue of Nature magazine.