Magnetic and Nematic Orders of the Two-Dimensional Electron Gas at Oxide (111) Surfaces and Interfaces

Abstract

Recent experiments have explored two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) at oxide (111) surfaces and interfaces, finding evidence for hexagonal symmetry breaking in SrTiO_{3} at low temperature. We discuss many-body instabilities of such (111) 2DEGs, incorporating multiorbital interactions in the t_{2g} manifold which can induce diverse magnetic and orbital orders. Such broken symmetries may partly account for the observed nematicity, cooperating or competing with phonon mechanisms. We present an effective field theory for the interplay of magnetism and nematic charge order, and discuss implications of the nematicity for transport and superconductivity in (111) 2DEGs.