Tunable rapid electron transport in titanium oxide thin films

Abstract

Rapid electron transport triggers many novel physical phenomena and becomes a critical point for high-speed electronics. Two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) has drawn great attention due to its high electron mobility, and this has been observed in different materials, such as semiconductor, oxide interfaces, and 2D materials. In this paper, we report, for the first time, the existence and electrical manipulation of 2DEG in the Schottky quantum well, which was formed in the titanium oxide thin films. We take the asymmetry interface electron scattering effect into consideration when studying the electrical transport properties of our multilayer thin films. We found electrons would be transferred from the low-mobility semiconducting and metallic conductive channels to the high-mobility 2DEG conductive channel with an in-plane applied electric field. Therefore, electron concentration and mobility of the 2DEG formed in the Schottky quantum well could be tuned, and the nano-devices exhibited non-linear voltage–current curves. The differential resistivity of the nano-devices could decrease by two orders with increasing electric field at room temperature. Weak electron localization of electrons was experimentally observed in our nano-devices at low temperature, which further demonstrated the existence of 2DEG in the Schottky quantum well. Our work will provide us new physics about the rapid electron transport in the multilayer thin films and bring novel functional devices for the modern microelectronic industry.