We report on angle-dependent measurements of the sheet resistances and Hall coefficients of electron liquids in SmTiO₃/SrTiO₃/SmTiO₃ quantum well structures, which were grown by molecular beam epitaxy on (001) DyScO₃. We compare their transport properties with those of similar structures grown on LSAT [(La_0.3Sr_0.7)(Al_0.65Ta_0.35)O₃]. On DyScO₃, planar defects normal to the quantum wells lead to a strong in-plane anisotropy in the transport properties. This allows for quantifying the role of defects in transport. In particular, we investigate differences in the longitudinal and Hall scattering rates, which is a non-Fermi liquid phenomenon known as lifetime separation. The residuals in both the longitudinal resistance and Hall angle were found to depend on the relative orientations of the transport direction to the planar defects. The Hall angle exhibited a robust T ² temperature dependence along all directions, whereas no simple power law could describe the temperature dependence of the longitudinal resistances. Remarkably, the degree of the carrier lifetime separation, as manifested in the distinctly different temperature dependences and diverging residuals near a critical quantum well thickness, was completely insensitive to disorder. The results allow for a clear distinction between disorder-induced contributions to the transport and intrinsic, non-Fermi liquid phenomena, which includes the lifetime separation.

The emergence of saddle-point Van Hove singularities (VHSs) in the density of states, accompanied by a change in Fermi surface topology, Lifshitz transition, constitutes an ideal ground for the emergence of different electronic phenomena, such as superconductivity, pseudo-gap, magnetism, and density waves. However, in most materials the Fermi level, [Formula: see text], is too far from the VHS where the change of electronic topology takes place, making it difficult to reach with standard chemical doping or gating techniques. Here, we demonstrate that this scenario can be realized at the interface between a Mott insulator and a band insulator as a result of quantum confinement and correlation enhancement, and easily tuned by fine control of layer thickness and orbital occupancy. These results provide a tunable pathway for Fermi surface topology and VHS engineering of electronic phases.