Searches for direct pair production of third generation squarks with the ATLAS detector

Naturalness arguments for weak-scale supersymmetry favour supersymmetric partners of the third generation quarks with masses not too far from those of their Standard Model counterparts. Top or bottom squarks with masses less than a few hundred GeV can also give rise to direct pair production rates at the LHC proton-proton collisions that can be observed in the data sample recorded by the ATLAS detector. The talk presents recent ATLAS results from searches for direct stop and sbottom pair production.