This thesis explores an amazing family of oxide compounds - the nickelates - known for their metal-to-insulator transition and, in the case of LaNiO3, to be a possible building block for designing a synthetic high Tc superconductor. Competition between various fascinating phases makes these materials very sensitive to external parameters and it is thus possible to dramatically tune their properties. This work on ultrathin LaNiO3 and the solid solution Nd1-xLaxNiO3 has important implications for the search for superconductivity in this class of materials.

Nominated as an outstanding Ph.D. thesis by the University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland Contains a general introduction to the fields of transition metal oxides and of heterostructures as well as the importance of their overlap Features a method of determining magnitudes of oxygen octahedral rotations in perovskites by synchrotron x-ray diffraction

Autorentext
Jennifer Fowlie obtained her Master in physics in 2013 from the University of St Andrews before pursuing graduate studies at the University of Geneva. While in Geneva she worked mostly on growth of nickelate based heterostructures and their characterisation by various means.

Inhalt
Introduction.- Perovskite Oxides.- Thin Film Physics.- The Nickelates.- Experimental Techniques.- Quantifying Octahedral Distortions in Perovskites.- Ultrathin LaNiO3.- The Nd1xLaxNiO3 Solid Solution.- Conclusions and Perspectives.- Bibliography.