Atomic-scale studies of structural and electronic properties in functional transition metal oxide thin films using scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy

摘要

Discovery of high-T_c superconductivity in cuprate has triggered enormous attention on strongly-correlated electron systems in transition metal oxides for decades. To elucidate the mechanism of exotic physical properties, many progressive efforts have been made to dramatically improve the resolution in measurements such as angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS). Nowadays, these techniques are widely used to understand structural and electronic properties in a variety of bulk cleavable materials as well as layered perovskite oxides. However, due to the poor cleavability, there are few reports on atomic-scale studies of three-dimensional perovskite oxides.