Strong Rashba Research Articles

Electron states emerging at magnetic domain walls of magnetic semiconductors with strong Rashba effect

Electron states emerging at magnetic domain walls of magnetic semiconductors with strong Rashba effect

Resonant spin dynamics of 2D electrons with strong Rashba and Zeeman couplings

Two-dimensional (2D) systems enable enhancing and diversifying the spin–orbit coupling of carriers, a key factor for better charge-spin conversion efficiencies in modern spintronic devices. Increasing 2D spin interactions also modifies dynamical spin-dependent properties of 2D materials, enabling to display resonant phenomena. In this work we focus on dynamical properties of the charge-spin conversion and analyze the resonant spin dynamics of 2D electrons upon strong spin–orbit coupling and Zeeman spin splittings, possibly exceeding the inverse relaxation times of electrons. We derive resonant frequencies and relaxation rates from the Bloch kinetic equations and examine how the trajectories of spin susceptibility poles change with variations in spin splittings and the relaxation time, paying special attention to the interplay between competing Rashba and Zeeman effect.

Nonvolatile Electric Control of Rashba Spin Splitting in Sb/In2Se3 Heterostructure.

Ferroelectric Rashba semiconductors (FRS) are highly demanded for their potential capability for nonvolatile electric control of electron spins. An ideal FRS is characterized by a combination of room temperature ferroelectricity and a strong Rashba effect, which has, however, been rarely reported. Herein, we designed a room-temperature FRS by vertically stacking a Sb monolayer on a room-temperature ferroelectric In2Se3 monolayer. Our first-principles calculations reveal that the Sb/In2Se3 heterostructure exhibits a clean Rashba splitting band near the Fermi level and a strong Rashba effect coupled to the ferroelectric order. Switching the electric polarization direction enhances the Rashba effect, and the flipping is feasible with a low energy barrier of 22 meV. This Rashba-ferroelectricity coupling effect is robust against changes of the heterostructure interfacial distance and external electric fields. Such a nonvolatile electrically tunable Rashba effect at room temperature enables potential applications in next-generation data storage and logic devices operated under small electrical currents.

Josephson Diode Effect in Parallel-Coupled Double-Quantum Dots Connected to Unalike Majorana Nanowires.

We study theoretically the Josephson diode effect (JDE) when realized in a system composed of parallel-coupled double-quantum dots (DQDs) sandwiched between two semiconductor nanowires deposited on an s-wave superconductor surface. Due to the combined effects of proximity-induced superconductivity, strong Rashba spin-orbit interaction, and the Zeeman splitting inside the nanowires, a pair of Majorana bound states (MBSs) may possibly emerge at opposite ends of each nanowire. Different phase factors arising from the superconductor substrate can be generated in the coupling amplitudes between the DQDs and MBSs prepared at the left and right nanowires, and this will result in the Josephson current. We find that the critical Josephson currents in positive and negative directions are different from each other in amplitude within an oscillation period with respect to the magnetic flux penetrating through the system, a phenomenon known as the JDE. It arises from the quantum interference effect in this double-path device, and it can hardly occur in the system of one QD coupled to MBSs. Our results also show that the diode efficiency can reach up to 50%, but this depends on the overlap amplitude between the MBSs, as well as the energy levels of the DQDs adjustable by gate voltages. The present model is realizable within current nanofabrication technologies and may find practical use in the interdisciplinary field of Majorana and Josephson physics.

High wide-temperature-range thermoelectric performance in GeTe through hetero-nanostructuring

GeTe is emerging as promising medium-temperature thermoelectric material due to its highly competitive performance and good mechanical properties. Strong Rashba spin splitting was harnessed to markedly improve the Seebeck coefficient and power factor of Bi and Sn codoped GeTe at low-medium temperature. Moreover, it is found that Bi-Sn-Cu doping reduces the phase-transition temperature to extend better electrical transport behavior of cubic phase to low temperature. As a result, the electrical transport properties in low-medium temperature were overall enhanced. In the meanwhile, endotaxial hetero-nanostructures efficiently scatter phonons and play a dominant role on affecting phonon propagation. The lattice thermal conductivity was reduced to 0.2 W m−1K−1 at 673 K. Drive by strengthening Rashba effect and endotaxial hetero-nanostructures, a record-high average ZT (300–823 K) of 1.6 and a high ZT of 2.1 were obtained in lead-free GeTe-based compounds. The vast increase of ZT promotes GeTe as a promising candidate for a wide range of applications in waste heat recovery and power generation.

Zero energy bound states on nano atomic line defect in iron-based high temperature superconductors

Motivated by recent scanning tunneling microscopy experiments on Fe atomic line defect in iron-based high temperature superconductors, we explore the origin of the zero energy bound states near the endpoints of the line defect by employing the two-orbit four-band tight binding model. With increasing the strength of the Rashba spin–orbit coupling along the line defect, the zero energy resonance peaks move simultaneously forward to negative energy for s+− pairing symmetry, but split for s++ pairing symmetry. The superconducting order parameter correction due to As(Te, Se) atoms missing does not shift the zero energy resonance peaks. Such the zero energy bound states are induced by the weak magnetic order rather than the strong Rashba spin–orbit coupling on Fe atomic line defect.

Stoichiometric control of electron mobility and 2D superconductivity at LaAlO3-SrTiO3 interfaces

SrTiO3-based conducting interfaces, which exhibit coexistence of gate-tunable 2D superconductivity and strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling (RSOC), are candidates to host topological superconductive phases. Yet, superconductivity is usually in the dirty limit, which tends to suppress nonconventional pairing and therefore challenges these expectations. Here we report on LaAlO3/SrTiO3 (LAO/STO) interfaces with large mobility and mean free paths comparable to the superconducting coherence length, approaching the clean limit for superconductivity. We further show that the carrier density, mobility, and formation of the superconducting condensate are controlled by the fine-tuning of La/Al chemical ratio in the LAO film. We find a region in the superconducting phase diagram where the critical temperature is not suppressed below the Lifshitz transition, at odds with previous experimental investigations. These findings point out the relevance of achieving a clean-limit regime to enhance the observation of unconventional pairing mechanisms in these systems.

Electronic and superconducting properties of CoSi[formula omitted] films on silicon — An unconventional superconductor with technological potential

We report the observation of unusual normal-state electronic conduction properties and superconducting characteristics of high-quality CoSi2/Si films grown on silicon Si(100) and Si(111) substrates. A good understanding of these features shall help to address the underlying physics of the unconventional pairing symmetry recently discovered in transparent CoSi2/TiSi2 heterojunctions (Chiu et al., 2021; Chiu et al., 2023), where CoSi2/Si is a superconductor with a superconducting transition temperature Tc≃ (1.1–1.5) K, dependent on its dimensions, and TiSi2 is a normal metal. In CoSi2/Si films, we find a pronounced positive magnetoresistance caused by the weak-antilocalization effect, indicating a strong Rashba spin–orbit coupling (SOC). This SOC generates two-component superconductivity in CoSi2/TiSi2 heterojunctions. The CoSi2/Si films are stable under ambient conditions and have ultralow 1/f noise. Moreover, they can be patterned via the standard lithography techniques, which might be of considerable practical value for future scalable superconducting and quantum device fabrication.

Light-induced giant enhancement of nonreciprocal transport at KTaO3-based interfaces

Nonlinear transport is a unique functionality of noncentrosymmetric systems, which reflects profound physics, such as spin-orbit interaction, superconductivity and band geometry. However, it remains highly challenging to enhance the nonreciprocal transport for promising rectification devices. Here, we observe a light-induced giant enhancement of nonreciprocal transport at the superconducting and epitaxial CaZrO3/KTaO3 (111) interfaces. The nonreciprocal transport coefficient undergoes a giant increase with three orders of magnitude up to 105 A−1 T−1. Furthermore, a strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling effective field of 14.7 T is achieved with abundant high-mobility photocarriers under ultraviolet illumination, which accounts for the giant enhancement of nonreciprocal transport coefficient. Our first-principles calculations further disclose the stronger Rashba spin-orbit coupling strength and the longer relaxation time in the photocarrier excitation process, bridging the light-property quantitative relationship. Our work provides an alternative pathway to boost nonreciprocal transport in noncentrosymmetric systems and facilitates the promising applications in opto-rectification devices and spin-orbitronic devices.

Superconducting diode effect sign change in epitaxial Al-InAs Josephson junctions

There has recently been a surge of interest in studying the superconducting diode effect (SDE) partly due to the possibility of uncovering the intrinsic properties of a material system. A change of sign of the SDE at finite magnetic field has previously been attributed to different mechanisms. Here, we observe the SDE in epitaxial Al-InAs Josephson junctions with strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC). We show that this effect strongly depends on the orientation of the in-plane magnetic field. In the presence of a strong magnetic field, we observe a change of sign in the SDE. Simulation and measurement of supercurrent suggest that depending on the superconducting widths, WS, this sign change may not necessarily be related to 0–π or topological transitions. We find that the strongest sign change in junctions with narrow WS is consistent with SOC-induced asymmetry of the critical current under magnetic-field inversion, while in wider WS, the sign reversal could be related to 0–π transitions and topological superconductivity.

Computational Exploration of Intrinsic Rashba Splitting in Janus Si2SbBi Monolayer Using Density Functional Theory

In this paper, we investigate the electronic structure of Janus Si2SbBi monolayer and compare it with the non-polar systems Si2Bi2 and Si2Sb2 monolayer based on Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculation. According to the first-principles calculation, these systems exhibit semiconductor properties with energy gaps are 0.674 eV, 0.28 eV, and 1.13 eV for Janus Si2SbBi, Si2Bi2, and Si2Sb2, respectively. In addition, the intrinsic Rashba splitting is also observed around the Γ Point on conduction band minimum (CBM) in the electronic structure of Si2SbBi monolayer, which is not found in Si2Sb2 and Si2Bi2 monolayer systems. This Rashba splitting phenomenon we analyze by using the perturbation theory based on symmetry group and get the first-order Rashba Parameter α1=1.84 eVÅ , and α1=1.73 eVÅ , for Γ-K and Γ-M direction, respectively. With the strong intrinsic Rashba Splitting, the Janus Si­2SbBi monolayer has excellent potential to be the candidate of semiconductor material for spintronics devices.

First principles predictions of structural, electronic and topological properties of two-dimensional Janus Ti2N2XI (X = Br, Cl) structures.

Motivated by the report of the giant Rashba effect in ternary layered compounds BiTeX, we consider two Janus structured compounds Ti2N2XI (X = Br, Cl) of the same ternary family exhibiting a 1 : 1 : 1 stoichiometric ratio. Broken inversion symmetry in the Janus structure, together with its unique electronic structure exhibiting anti-crossing states formed between Ti-d states and strong spin-orbit coupled I-p states, generates large Rashba cofficients of 2-3 eV Å for these compounds, classifying them as strong Rashba compounds. The anti-crossing features of the first-principles calculated electronic structure also result in non-trivial topology, combining two quantum phenomena - Rashba effect and non-trivial topology - in the same materials. This makes Janus TiNI compounds candidate materials for two-dimensional composite quantum materials. The situation becomes further promising by the fact that the properties are found to exhibit extreme sensitivity and tunability upon application of uniaxial strain.

Large-band-gap non-Dirac quantum spin Hall states and strong Rashba effect in functionalized thallene films

The quantum spin Hall state materials have recently attracted much attention owing to their potential applications in the design of spintronic devices. Based on density functional theory calculations and crystal field theory, we study electronic structures and topological properties of functionalized thallene films. Two different hydrogenation styles (Tl2H and Tl2H2) are considered, which can drastically vary the electronic and topological behaviors of the thallene. Due to the C3v symmetry of the two systems, the px and py orbitals at the Γ point have the non-Dirac band degeneracy. With spin–orbit coupling (SOC), topological nontrivial band gaps can be generated, giving rise to non-Dirac quantum spin Hall states in the two thallium hydride films. The nontrivial band gap for the monolayer Tl2H is very large (855 meV) due to the large on-site SOC of Tl px and py orbitals. The band gap in Tl2H2 is, however, small due to the band inversion between the Tl px/y and pz orbitals. It is worth noting that both the Tl2H and Tl2H2 monolayers exhibit strong Rashba spin splitting effects, especially for the monolayer Tl2H2 (αR = 2.52 eVÅ), rationalized well by the breaking of the structural inversion symmetry. The Rashba effect can be tuned sensitively by applying biaxial strain and external electric fields. Our findings provide an ideal platform for fabricating room-temperature spintronic and topological electronic devices.

Enhanced Rashba Spin Orbit Coupling and Magnetic Behavior at Oxide Heterointerfaces by Optical Gating.

Complex oxide heterointerfaces have been a hot research spot due to their rich physical phenomena and broad quantum coherence that respond to multiple external stimuli. Among these external stimuli, light is a very powerful one to manipulate properties such as carrier density and spin characteristics. However, achieving a light-magnetic correlation is in high demand for multifield responding devices, and its intrinsic mechanism remains unclear. Here, by illuminating Nd0.86Sr0.14Al0.86Ni0.14O3-SrTiO3 heterointerfaces using 360 nm light, we observe a series of interesting physical phenomena, like enhanced magnetoresistance (MR). More interestingly, a band splitting and strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC) effect occur after illumination, accompanied by a magnetic feature and thus leading to an anomalous Hall effect (AHE). Upon optical gating, the magnetism can be caused by Rashba SOC induced spin-orbit torque (SOT). The work will be sure to have great importance in both theoretical studies and all-oxide devices.

Decoupling multiphase superconductivity from normal state ordering in CeRh2As2

${\mathrm{CeRh}}_{2}{\mathrm{As}}_{2}$ is a multiphase superconductor with ${T}_{\text{c}}=0.26$ K. The two superconducting (SC) phases, SC1 and SC2, observed for a magnetic field $H$ parallel to the $c$ axis of the tetragonal unit cell, have been interpreted as even- and odd-parity SC states, separated by a phase boundary at ${\ensuremath{\mu}}_{0}{H}^{*}=4$ T. Such parity switching is possible due to a strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling at the Ce sites located in locally noncentrosymmetric environments of the globally centrosymmetric lattice. The existence of another ordered state (phase I) below a temperature ${T}_{0}\ensuremath{\approx}0.4$ K suggests an alternative interpretation of the ${H}^{*}$ transition: It separates a mixed SC$+$I (SC1) and a pure SC (SC2) state. Here, we present a detailed study of higher-quality single crystals of ${\mathrm{CeRh}}_{2}{\mathrm{As}}_{2}$, showing much sharper signatures at ${T}_{\text{c}}=0.31$ K and ${T}_{0}=0.48$ K. We refine the $T\ensuremath{-}H$ phase diagram of ${\mathrm{CeRh}}_{2}{\mathrm{As}}_{2}$ and demonstrate that ${T}_{0}(H)$ and ${T}_{\text{c}}(H)$ lines meet at ${\ensuremath{\mu}}_{0}H\ensuremath{\approx}6$ T, well above ${H}^{*}$, implying no influence of phase I on the SC phase switching. A basic analysis with the Ginzburg-Landau theory indicates a weak competition between the two orders.

Unlocking hidden spins in centrosymmetric 1T transition metal dichalcogenides by vacancy-controlled spin-orbit scattering

Spin current generation and manipulation remain the key challenge of spintronics, in which relativistic spin-orbit coupling (SOC) plays a ubiquitous role. In this paper, we demonstrate that hidden Rashba spins in the nonmagnetic, centrosymmetric lattice of multilayer ${\mathrm{SnSe}}_{2}$ can be efficiently activated by spin-orbit scattering introduced by Se vacancies. Via vacancy scattering, conduction electrons with hidden spin-momentum locked polarizations acquire out-of-plane magnetization components, which effectively break the chiral symmetry between the two Se sublattices of an ${\mathrm{SnSe}}_{2}$ monolayer when electron spins start precession in the strong built-in Rashba SOC field. The resulting spin separations are manifested in quantum transport as vacancy concentration- and temperature-dependent crossovers from weak antilocalization to weak localization, with the distinctive spin relaxation mechanism of the D'yakonov-Perel' type. In a nonlocal geometry, the generated spins exhibit a long diffusion length exceeding 5 $\textmu{}\mathrm{m}$, when fast momentum scattering protects the effective spin polarizations by driving the random-walk evolution of spin precessions subject to rapidly changing Rashba SOC field. Our study shows the great potential of two-dimensional systems with hidden-spin textures for spintronics.

Magnetic excitations in the helical Rashba superconductor

We investigate the magnetic excitation spectrum in the helical state of a noncentrosymmetric superconductor with inversion symmetry breaking and strong Rashba spin–orbit coupling. For this purpose we derive the general expressions of the dynamical spin response functions under the presence of strong Rashba splitting of conduction bands, superconducting gap and external field which lead to stabilization of Cooper pairs with finite overall momentum in a helical state. The latter is characterized by momentum space regions of paired and unpaired states with different quasiparticle dispersions. The magnetic response is determined by i) excitations within and between both paired and unpaired regions ii) anomalous coherence factors and iii) additional spin matrix elements due to helical Rashba spin texture of bands. We show that as a consequence typical correlated real space and spin space anisotropies appear in the dynamical susceptibility which would be observable as a characteristic fingerprint for a helical superconducting state in inelastic neutron scattering investigations.

Fermi-Level-Dependent Charge-to-Spin Conversion of the Two-Dimensional Electron Gas at the γ - Al2O3/KTaO3 Interface

Charge-to-spin conversion is crucial for the application of emerging spintronic devices. A two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) at a complex oxide interface usually possesses strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling, and spin-momentum locking offers a great possibility for efficient charge-to-spin conversion through the Rashba-Edelstein effect. Here, we report the fabrication of metallic 2DEGs in \ensuremath{\gamma}-${\mathrm{Al}}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}/{\mathrm{KTaO}}_{3}$ spinel/perovskite heterostructures and investigate the charge-to-spin conversion for Py/\ensuremath{\gamma}-${\mathrm{Al}}_{2}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}/{\mathrm{KTaO}}_{3}$ devices using the technique of spin-torque ferromagnetic resonance. The sizable spin splitting of the band structure results in a large current-induced spin-orbit torque efficiency with values up to around 3.6 at 5 K and about 1.1 at 300 K, which are more than an order of magnitude higher than those of heavy metals (0.07 for $\mathrm{Pt}$ at 300 K). Moreover, both theoretical and experimental results show that the charge-to-spin conversion is strongly dependent on the position of the Fermi level. These results demonstrate that optimizing the band filling of a ${\mathrm{KTaO}}_{3}$-based 2DEG is crucial for maximizing the conversion efficiency.

Spin dynamics in quantum dots on liquid helium

Liquid He-4 is free from magnetic defects, making it an ideal substrate for electrons with long-lived spin states. When electrons are localized in quantum dots and a strong magnetic field is applied along the surface, such states may serve as qubit states. A nonuniform magnetic field from a current-carrying wire submerged into helium enables switchable spin-orbit coupling. Bringing the frequency of orbital intradot vibrations close to the Larmor frequency allows for obtaining a strong Rashba electric dipole spin resonance and efficient interdot spin coupling. The authors show that the associated spin relaxation can be made sufficiently slow, permitting high-fidelity gate operations.

Large bilinear magnetoresistance from Rashba spin-splitting on the surface of a topological insulator

In addition to the topologically protected linear dispersion, a band-bending-confined two-dimensional electron gas with tunable Rashba spin-splitting (RSS) was found to coexist with the topological surface states on the surface of topological insulators (TIs). Here, we report the observation of large bilinear magnetoresistance (BMR) in Bi2Se3 films decorated with transition metal atoms. The magnitude of the BMR sensitively depends on the type and amount of atoms deposited, with a maximum achieved value close to those of strong Rashba semiconductors. Our first-principles calculations reproduce the quantum well states and reveal sizable RSS in all Bi2Se3 heterostructures with broken inversion symmetry. Our results show that charge-spin interconversion through RSS states in TIs can be fine-tuned through surface atom deposition and easily detected via BMR for potential spintronic applications.