Scanning Probe Techniques for the Characterization of Electronic Properties of Transition Metal Oxide Surfaces and Interfaces

Scanning tunneling spectroscopy has been a window into the (sub)atomic world for more than two decades now, but the wealth of information that this technique offers seem yet to be exploited to it's maximum. In this thesis it is tried to optimize STM and, more precisely, STS techniques for the investigation of transition metal oxides, especially ones that exhibit interesting correlated structural and electronic phenomena like Pr_{1-x}Ca_{x}MnO_{3} and LaAlO_{3}/SrTiO_{3} system; the first is an insulator characterized by intriguing magnetic and charge-ordered phases, and the second is unique example of 2D electron gas, confined to the buried interface between two band-insulators. To this purpose, different numerical methods are proposed, which greatly help the handling of the data obtained in STS measurements. This approach allowed to determine important correlations between structural and electronic properties of the TMO surfaces/interfaces