Abstract
Spin–orbit coupling (SOC), describing the interaction of the spin and orbital motion of electrons with a variety of emergent phenomena, has driven significant research activity over the past decade. Here, we review the fundamental principles of SOC and its related physical effects on magnetism and spin–charge interconversion. A special emphasis is made on ferroelectricity controlled SOC with tunable spin-torque effects and spin–charge interconversions for potential applications in future scalable, non-volatile, and low power consumption information processing devices.
Highlights
Spintronic devices, which utilize and control the spin degree of freedom of electrons, have additional functionalities that the electric and magnetic signals can be interconverted with attractive advantages, such as non-volatile control, high-speed procession, high-density, and low power consumption.1–5 Considering the orbital degree of freedom, the coupling between spin, charge, and orbit has become the key ingredient in this rapidly emerging field.6 These inter-couplings result in many novel physical phenomena, among which the spin–charge interconversions7–11 and spin-torque effects12–16 draw special attention because of the controllable electric and magnetic properties
For a nonzero net spin–orbital magnetic field, it is necessary to have an asymmetric electric field in the system, as well as unbalanced moving electrons. It was first reported by Dresselhaus22 in non-centrosymmetric zinc blende structured semiconductors, such as InSb and GaAs,23 and the electronic band shows spin- and momentum-(k) dependent splitting. This is known as Dresselhaus spin–orbit coupling (SOC), which is attributed to the bulk inversion asymmetry (BIA) of the lattice and its crystal field with band splitting proportional to k3.24,25 With strain inside the semiconductor, the additional band splitting from strain is reported to be linear with the k
The observation of SOC induced novel physical effects has stimulated the rapid growth of spin-orbitronics over the past decade
Summary
Spintronic devices, which utilize and control the spin degree of freedom of electrons, have additional functionalities that the electric and magnetic signals can be interconverted with attractive advantages, such as non-volatile control, high-speed procession, high-density, and low power consumption. Considering the orbital degree of freedom, the coupling between spin, charge, and orbit has become the key ingredient in this rapidly emerging field. These inter-couplings result in many novel physical phenomena, among which the spin–charge interconversions and spin-torque effects draw special attention because of the controllable electric and magnetic properties. Considering the orbital degree of freedom, the coupling between spin, charge, and orbit has become the key ingredient in this rapidly emerging field.. Considering the orbital degree of freedom, the coupling between spin, charge, and orbit has become the key ingredient in this rapidly emerging field.6 These inter-couplings result in many novel physical phenomena, among which the spin–charge interconversions and spin-torque effects draw special attention because of the controllable electric and magnetic properties. Its ferroelectric polarization induced intense electric fields can tune the carrier density, band structure, and spin–orbit coupling (SOC) of the adjacent materials with multi-functional properties. The energy consumption for polarization switching is ultralow, which is about a thousand times smaller than those needed to switch ferromagnets.4,17 These make ferroelectricity attractive in spintronics for both fundamental science and industry applications with multifunctional properties.. A short summary and prospects on spin–orbit coupling via ferroelectricity for future device applications are discussed
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