Interaction induced staggered spin-orbit order in two-dimensional electron gas

Abstract

We propose and formulate an interaction induced staggered spin-orbit order as a new emergent phase of two-dimensional Fermi gases. We show that when some form of inherent spin-splitting via Rashba-type spin-orbit coupling renders two helical Fermi surfaces to become significantly `nested', a Fermi surface instability arises. To lift this degeneracy, a spontaneous symmetry breaking spin-orbit density wave develops, causing a surprisingly large quasiparticle gapping with chiral electronic states. Since the staggered spin-orbit order is associated with a condensation energy, quantified by the gap value, destroying such spin-orbit interaction costs sufficiently large perturbation field or temperature or de-phasing time. BiAg${}_2$ surface state is shown to be a representative system for realizing such novel spin-orbit interaction with tunable and large strength, and the spin-splitting is decoupled from charge excitations. These functional properties are relevant for spin-electronics, spin-caloritronics, and spin-Hall effect applications.

Accepted in PRL

References in corpus (16)

• Topological Insulators in Three Dimensions
• Discovery (theoretical prediction and experimental observation) of a large-gap topological-insulator class with spin-polarized single-Dirac-cone on the surface
• Spin Hall effect
• A spin-orbit coupled Bose-Einstein condensate
• Spin Caloritronics
• Superconducting 2D system with lifted spin degeneracy: Mixed singlet-triplet state
• Evidence for reversible control of magnetization in a ferromagnetic material via spin-orbit magnetic field
• Unexpected mass acquisition of Dirac fermions at the quantum phase transition of a topological insulator
• Spin Nernst effect and Nernst effect in two-dimensional electron systems
• Zero-bias spin separation
• Nernst effect, quasiparticles, and d-density waves in cuprates
• Direct Observation of Interband Spin-Orbit Coupling in a Two-Dimensional Electron System
• Spin-orbit density wave induced hidden topological order in URu2Si2
• Spin-orbit coupling induced magnetism in the $d$-density wave phase of La${}_{2-x}$Ba${}_x$CuO${}_4$ superconductors
• Electron-like Fermi surface and in-plane anisotropy due to chain states in YBa${}_2$Cu${}_3$O${}_{7-\delta }$ superconductors
• Anisotropic spin gaps in BiAg${}_2$-Ag/Si(111)

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Engineering three-dimensional topological insulators in Rashba-type spin-orbit coupled heterostructures
• Weyl semimetals and superconductors designed in an orbital selective superlattice
• Observation of correlated spin-orbit order in a strongly anisotropic quantum wire system
• Collective modes of spin-orbit coupled Fermi gases in the repulsive regime
• Imprints of spin-orbit density wave in the hidden order state of URu2Si2
• Photo-induced SU(3) topological material of spinless fermions
• Rigidity of topological invariants to symmetry breakings
• Spin-orbit density wave: A new phase of matter applicable to the hidden order state of URu2Si2
• Quantum spin Hall density wave insulator of correlated fermions