Abstract
The control of the electron spin by external means is a key issue for spintronic devices. Using spin- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (SARPES) with three-dimensional spin detection, we demonstrate operando electrostatic spin manipulation in ferroelectric GeTe and multiferroic Ge1-xMnxTe. We not only demonstrate for the first time electrostatic spin manipulation in Rashba semiconductors due to ferroelectric polarization reversal, but are also able to follow the switching pathway in detail, and show a gain of the Rashba-splitting strength under external fields. In multiferroic Ge1-xMnxTe operando SARPES reveals switching of the perpendicular spin component due to electric field induced magnetization reversal. This provides firm evidence of effective multiferroic coupling which opens up magnetoelectric functionality with a multitude of spin-switching paths in which the magnetic and electric order parameters are coupled through ferroelastic relaxation paths. This work thus provides a new type of magnetoelectric switching entangled with Rashba-Zeeman splitting in a multiferroic system.
Highlights
Manipulating the spin texture of ferroelectrics (FE) through electric fields and of multiferroics through both magnetic and/or electric fields is a key requirement for programmable spintronic devices [1]
Using spin- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (SARPES) with three-dimensional spin detection, we demonstrate operando electrostatic spin manipulation in ferroelectric α-GeTe and multiferroic Ge1−xMnxTe
We demonstrate for the first time electrostatic spin manipulation in Rashba semiconductors due to ferroelectric polarization reversal
Summary
Manipulating the spin texture of ferroelectrics (FE) through electric fields and of multiferroics through both magnetic and/or electric fields is a key requirement for programmable spintronic devices [1]. For moderate Mn dopings, Ge1−xMnxTe becomes ferromagnetic as well [9,10], which opens up new spin-based functionalities because this multiferroicity entangles the Rashba and Zeeman effects within a three-dimensional system [5,11] In this new class of multiferroic Rashba semiconductors (MUFERS), we already showed that external magnetic fields switch the bulk spin texture [5]. An important issue for switching of the polarization is that, due to the fourfold degeneracy of the rhombohedral lattice distortion, eight different domains with individual polarization vectors pointing along different h111i directions may be present This multidomain structure is independent of the substrate epitaxial registry because thin films grown on BaF2 or Si(111) develop the same major and secondary FE domains [4,9,10,16]. In such a multidomain structure, polarization reversal may involve intermediate steps via oblique [1 ̄11] domains [purple arrow in Fig. 1(d)], typically leading to a whole realm of FE-fatigue effects [17]
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