Ferroelectric Rashba semiconductors as a novel class of multifunctional materials

Frontiers in Physics

Picozzi, Silvia¹ 

[1] Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Institute for Superconducting and Innovative Materials and devices (CNR-SPIN), L'Aquila, Italy

关键词: Ferroelectricity;    Rashba effect;    Spin-orbit coupling;    Electronic Structure Theory;    GeTe;    semiconductor spintronics.;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fphy.2014.00010

学科分类：物理（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

The discovery of novel properties, effects or microscopic mechanisms in modern materials science is often driven by the quest for combining, into a single compound, several functionalities: not only the juxtaposition of the latter functionalities, but especially their coupling, can open new horizons in basic condensed matter physics as well as in technology. Semiconductor spintronics makes no exception. In this context, we have discovered by means of density-functional simulations that, when a sizeable spin-orbit coupling is combined with ferroelectricity, such as in GeTe, one obtains novel multifunctional materials - called Ferro-Electric Rashba Semi-Conductors (FERSC) - where, thanks to a giant Rashba spin-splitting, the spin texture is controllable and switchable via an electric field. This peculiar spin-electric coupling can find a natural playground in small-gap insulators, such as chalcogenides, and can bring brand new assets into the field of electrically-controlled semiconductor spintronics.

【 授权许可】

CC BY