PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Han, Kun
AU  - Hu, Kaige
AU  - Li, Xiao
AU  - Huang, Ke
AU  - Huang, Zhen
AU  - Zeng, Shengwei
AU  - Qi, Dongchen
AU  - Ye, Chen
AU  - Yang, Jian
AU  - Xu, Huan
AU  - Ariando, Ariando
AU  - Yi, Jiabao
AU  - Lü, Weiming
AU  - Yan, Shishen
AU  - Wang, X. Renshaw
TI  - Erasable and recreatable two-dimensional electron gas at the heterointerface of SrTiO<sub>3</sub> and a water-dissolvable overlayer
AID  - 10.1126/sciadv.aaw7286
DP  - 2019 Aug 01
TA  - Science Advances
PG  - eaaw7286
VI  - 5
IP  - 8
4099  - http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/8/eaaw7286.short
4100  - http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/8/eaaw7286.full
SO  - Sci Adv2019 Aug 01; 5
AB  - While benefiting greatly from electronics, our society also faces a major problem of electronic waste, which has already caused environmental pollution and adverse human health effects. Therefore, recyclability becomes a must-have feature in future electronics. Here, we demonstrate an erasable and recreatable two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG), which can be easily created and patterned by depositing a water-dissolvable overlayer of amorphous Sr3Al2O6 (a-SAO) on SrTiO3 (STO) at room temperature. The 2DEG can be repeatedly erased or recreated by depositing the a-SAO or dissolving in water, respectively. Photoluminescence results show that the 2DEG arises from the a-SAO–induced oxygen vacancy. Furthermore, by gradually depleting the 2DEG, a transition of nonlinear to linear Hall effect is observed, demonstrating an unexpected interfacial band structure. The convenience and repeatability in the creation of the water-dissolvable 2DEG with rich physics could potentially contribute to the exploration of next generation electronics, such as environment-friendly or water-soluble electronics.