A thin film perspective on quantum functional oxides

Abstract

Transition metal oxides show remarkably diverse quantum functional properties such as high temperature superconductivity, colossal magnetoresistance, multiferroicity, two-dimensional electron gas, and topological insulators. This diversity manifests as a result of many energy scales of similar magnitude competing rather than any particular one dominating in the system. In this regard, growth of atomically controlled epitaxial thin films and heterostructures would allow to control relevant energy scales by imposing various stimuli, such as reduction of dimensionality, introduction of interfaces, modification of the interfacial octahedral tilts, and symmetry breaking; in turn, modified functional properties or completely new phenomena may emerge in epitaxial thin films and heterostructures. Also of exceeding importance is the fact that atomically controlled epitaxial thin films and heterostructures of the multifunctional oxides offer promising potentials for next generation oxide electronics. In this short review, we collect representative examples of quantum correlated phenomena arising in epitaxial films and heterostructures of transition metal oxides and highlight some of the progresses achieved in thin film research of various functional oxides in the last couple of decades.