Understanding the role of exchange and correlations in complex oxides under strain and oxide heterostructures

The study of complex oxides and oxide heterostructures has dominated the field of experimental and theoretical condensed matter research for the better part of the last few decades. Powerful experimental techniques such as molecular beam epitaxy and pulsed laser deposition have made fabrication of oxide heterostructures with atomically sharp interfaces possible, whereas more and more sophisticated handling of exchange and correlations within first principles methods including density functional theory (DFT) supplemented with Hubbard U corrections and hybrid functionals, and beyond DFT techniques such as dynamical mean field theory (DMFT) have made understanding of such correlated oxides and oxide interfaces easier. The emergence of the high-mobility two-dimensional electron gas with fascinating properties such as giant photoconductance, large negative magnetoresistance, superconductivity, ferromagnetism, and the mysterious coexistence of the latter two have indeed caught the attention of condensed matter community at large. Similarly, strain tuning of oxides have generated considerable interest particularly after the recent discovery of piezoelectric methods of strain generation. Theoretical understanding and prediction of the possible exotic phases emerging in such complex oxides both under strain and in heterostructures will eventually lead to better design of device applications in this new emerging field of oxide electronics, along with possible discovery of exotic physics in condensed matter systems, which may be of wider significance! In this review, we briefly look at theoretical studies of novel phenomena in oxides under strain and oxide heterostructure, and try to understand the role of exchange and particularly correlation in giving rise to such exotic electronic states. This review though primarily focuses on the theoretical aspects on understanding the different mechanism of the phenomena of emergence of exotic phases, does provide a unique overview of the experimental literature as well, accompanied by the theoretical understanding such that relevant device applications can be envisaged.