At interfaces between complex oxides, electronic systems with unusual electronic properties can be generated. We report on superconductivity in the electron gas formed at the interface between two insulating dielectric perovskite oxides, LaAlO ₃ and SrTiO ₃ . The behavior of the electron gas is that of a two-dimensional superconductor, confined to a thin sheet at the interface. The superconducting transition temperature of ≅ 200 millikelvin provides a strict upper limit to the thickness of the superconducting layer of ≅ 10 nanometers.

Using a fifth-order aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope, which provides a factor of 100 increase in signal over an uncorrected instrument, we demonstrated two-dimensional elemental and valence-sensitive imaging at atomic resolution by means of electron energy-loss spectroscopy, with acquisition times of well under a minute (for a 4096-pixel image). Applying this method to the study of a La _0.7 Sr _0.3 MnO ₃ /SrTiO ₃ multilayer, we found an asymmetry between the chemical intermixing on the manganese-titanium and lanthanum-strontium sublattices. The measured changes in the titanium bonding as the local environment changed allowed us to distinguish chemical interdiffusion from imaging artifacts.