Long after the heady days of high‐temperature superconductivity, the oxides came back into the limelight in 2004 with the discovery of the 2D electron gas (2DEG) in SrTiO3 (STO) and several heterostructures based on it. Not only do these materials exhibit interesting physics, but they have also opened up new vistas in oxide electronics and spintronics. However, much of the attention has recently shifted to KTaO3 (KTO), a material with all the “good” properties of STO (simple cubic structure, high mobility, etc.) but with the additional advantage of a much larger spin‐orbit coupling. In this state‐of‐the‐art review of the fascinating world of KTO, it is attempted to cover the remarkable progress made, particularly in the last five years. Certain unsolved issues are also indicated, while suggesting future research directions as well as potential applications. The range of physical phenomena associated with the 2DEG trapped at the interfaces of KTO‐based heterostructures include spin polarization, superconductivity, quantum oscillations in the magnetoresistance, spin‐polarized electron transport, persistent photocurrent, Rashba effect, topological Hall effect, and inverse Edelstein Effect. It is aimed to discuss, on a single platform, the various fabrication techniques, the exciting physical properties and future application possibilities of this family of materials.

In recent times, perovskite oxide based photovoltaic devices have attracted lots of attention. Here we report the effect of light illumination on the transport properties of a two-dimensional electron gas formed at the recently discovered conducting interface of EuO and KTaO 3 . We have seen that lowering the carrier density increases the photoresponse in this system. In room temperature the photoresponse consists of two processes. However, at low temperature it is not only governed by a single process; in addition, the response rate becomes several orders of magnitude faster. At the same time the magnitude of the photoresponse is also larger at low temperature. Our observation suggests an interplay between carrier and phonon dynamics determines the photoresponse and should be investigated theoretically in detail to design future photoresponsive cells.

Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) is one of the important techniques for the growth of oxide thin films, interfaces, and superlattices. It can also be utilized to implement diverse combinatorial approaches. Thin film growth using PLD hinges on various parameters that decide the composition, structure, quality, and finally the physical properties of the films, interfaces, and superlattices. In this paper it is demonstrated how the growth conditions inside the chamber during the growth can be judged from outside by combining in situ and ex situ techniques. An example of the growth of LaVO3‐SrTiO3 interface is given to elucidate the effect of repetitive growth on the chamber condition and hence on the reproducibility of the physical properties of the samples. The experiments suggest noticeable change in transport properties with successive deposition processes.