Strongly correlated heterostructures

Strongly-correlated heterostructures have become one of the most attractive areas of materials science. As electronic phase behaviour in strongly-correlated electron systems is a fundamental problem of condensed matter physics, the change in their phase behaviour near surfaces and interfaces, i.e., electronic reconstruction, is the fundamental issue of the correlated-electron interface science. In addition to fundamental science, understanding of such phase behaviour is of crucial importance for potential devices exploiting the novel properties of the correlated-electron systems. This chapter presents a general overview of the field of oxide heterostructures, and then discusses recent theoretical progress mainly focusing on the correlation effects. It illustrates the general concept of electronic reconstruction by studying model heterostructures consisting of strongly-correlated systems with various properties such as Mott metal-insulator transition, magnetism, and superconductivity as seen in a variety of transition-metal oxides. Future directions for research are also discussed.