Second-order charge and spin transport in LaO/STO system in the presence of cubic Rashba spin orbit couplings

Abstract

Under an applied electric field, certain non-centrosymmetric materials with broken time-reversal symmetry may exhibit non-reciprocal transport behavior in which the charge and spin currents contain components that are second order in the electric field. In this study, we investigate the second-order spin accumulation and charge and spin responses in the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 (LaO/STO) system with magnetic dopants under the influence of linear and cubic Rashba spin–orbit coupling (RSOC) terms. We explain the physical origin of the second-order response and perform a symmetry analysis of the first- and second-order responses for different dopant magnetization directions relative to the applied electric field. We then numerically solve the Boltzmann transport equation by extending the approach of Schliemann and Loss (2003 Phys. Rev. B 68 165311) to higher orders in the electric field. We show that the sign of the second-order responses can be switched by varying the magnetization direction of the magnetic dopants or relative strengths of the two cubic RSOC terms and explain these trends by considering the Fermi surfaces of the respective systems. These findings provide insights into the interplay of multiple SOC effects in the LaO/STO system and how the resulting first- and second-order charge and spin responses can be engineered by exploiting the symmetries of the system.