Abstract
Motivated by recent angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy observations of a highly metallic two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) at the (001) vacuum-cleaved surface of SrTiO and the subsequent discussion on the possible role of oxygen vacancies for the appearance of such a state [Santander-Syro et al., Nature (London) 469, 189 (2011)], we analyze by means of density functional theory the electronic structure of various oxygen-deficient SrTiO surface slabs. We find a significant surface reconstruction after introducing oxygen vacancies and we show that the charges resulting from surface-localized oxygen vacancies—independent of the oxygen concentration—redistribute in the surface region and deplete rapidly within a few layers from the surface suggesting the formation of a 2DEG. We discuss the underlying model emerging from such observations.
7 More- Received 22 August 2012
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.86.195119
©2012 American Physical Society