Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2011
Recently, we have found that high-density two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) confined within a unit cell layer thickness in SrTiO3 exhibits extremely large Seebeck coefficient (|S|2D) [REF], approximately five times larger than |S|3D. Here we clarify the origin of giant |S|2D using [(SrTiO3)x/(SrTi0.8Nb0.2O3)y]20 (x = 1∼60, y = 1∼20) superlattices. The |S|2D value increased proportionally to y{0.5, indicating that the density of states of the conduction band increases with decreasing y (quantum size effect). Superlattices of [(SrTiO3)x/(SrTi0.8Nb0.2O3)y]z (x = 0∼60, y = 1∼20, z = 20) were fabricated on the (001)-face of LaAlO3 substrate by PLD using RHEED to count the number of SrTiO3 or SrTi0.8Nb0.2O3 layers. HR-XRD and HAADF-STEM studies revealed that high-quality [(SrTiO3)17/(SrTi0.8Nb0.2O3)y]z superlattices were successfully fabricated. A dramatic increase of |S|2D is seen with decreasing y-value of the [(SrTiO3)x/(SrTi0.8Nb0.2O3)y]z superlattices. The slope for the plots of log |S|2D - log y is -0.5, and reached 290 μVK−1 (y = 1), which is ∼5 times larger than that of the SrTi0.8Nb0.2O3 bulk (|S|3D = 61 μVK−1). Further, the |S|2D value monotonically increases with x-value and is saturated when x-value > 16 (6.25 nm). We clarified that the critical barrier thickness for electron tunneling in [(SrTiO3)x/(SrTi0.8Nb0.2O3)y]z superlattice is 6.25 nm (16 unit cell layers of SrTiO3). The present results give very important information to utilize the [(SrTiO3)x/(SrTi0.8Nb0.2O3)y]z superlattices for practical application.