Anomalous Transport in Sketched Nanostructures at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Interface

The oxide heterostructure LaAlO3/SrTiO3 supports a two-dimensional electron liquid with a variety of competing phases, including magnetism, superconductivity, and weak antilocalization because of Rashba spin-orbit coupling. Further confinement of this two-dimensional electron liquid to the quasi-one-dimensional regime can provide insight into the underlying physics of this system and reveal new behavior. Here, we describe magnetotransport experiments on narrow LaAlO3/SrTiO3 structures created by a conductive atomic force microscope lithography technique. Four-terminal local-transport measurements on Hall bar structures about 10 nm wide yield longitudinal resistances that are comparable to the resistance quantum h/e(2) and independent of the channel length. Large nonlocal resistances (as large as 10(4) Omega) are observed in some but not all structures with separations between current and voltage that are large compared to the two-dimensional mean-free path. The nonlocal transport is strongly suppressed by the onset of superconductivity below about 200 mK. The origin of these anomalous transport signatures is not understood, but may arise from coherent transport defined by strong spin-orbit coupling and/or magnetic interactions. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevX.3.011021