Oxide electronics: increasing trends and future challenges

Oxide materials exhibit a wide range of functional properties, such as isolators, superconductors, ferromagnets and ferroelectrics. This diversity in materials properties opened the very active research area of “oxide electronics”. Nowadays, it is possible to control the growth of oxide thin films with atomic precision and these oxide films start to play a very important role in electronic devices. Recently, a new “degree of freedom” has been recognised. By atomic control of interfaces between oxide materials, i.e., the chemical composition and crystalline structure, new phenomena can be observed. One example is the electronically conducting interface between SrTiO3 and LaAlO3, both insulating oxides. In this paper, the recent developments of oxide thin film growth and future challenges in the field of oxide electronics are addressed.