Fig. 1: Symmetry engineering of (112)-LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface.
From: Magnetization generation and giant nonlinear transport at symmetry-engineered interfaces
a An atomic sketch of the heterostructure of (112)-LaAlO3/SrTiO3 system. b Top view of the Ti atoms distribution along the [112] crystallographic direction. Only one mirror plane is preserved, as shown in the dashed line. c, d The two-dimensional sketch of atomic distribution along (c) \([11\bar{1}]\) and (d) \([1\bar{1}0]\) in-plane directions. Black dashed lines indicate the mirror planes in pristine SrTiO3 crystals. Yellow arrows indicate the out-of-plane polarity at the interface. Only \({M}_{[1\bar{1}0]}\) aligns with the out-of-plane polarity, thus preserves. e, f Atomic resolved ADF-STEM results show the interface between LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 layers along the direction (e) \([11\bar{1}]\) and (f) \([1\bar{1}0]\) in-plane directions. Yellow dashed lines indicate the preserved mirror symmetry \({M}_{[1\bar{1}0]}\) in (e) and the broken mirror symmetry \({M}_{[110]}\) and \({M}_{[001]}\) in (f).
