Engineering Topological Surface States and Giant Rashba Spin Splitting in BiTeI/Bi${}_2$Te${}_3$ Heterostructures

Abstract

The search for strongly inversion asymmetric topological insulators is an active research field because these materials possess distinct properties compared with the inversion symmetric ones. In particular, it is desirable to realize a large Rashba spin-splitting (RSS) in such materials, which combined with the topological surface states (TSS) could lead to useful spintronics applications. In this report, based on first principles calculations, we predict that the heterostructure of BiTeI/Bi${}_2$Te${}_3$ is a strong topological insulator with a giant RSS. The coexistence of TSS and RSS in the current system is native and stable. More importantly, we find that both the ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$ invariants and the Rashba energy can be controlled by engineering the layer geometries of the heterostructure, and the Rashba energy can be made even larger than that of bulk BiTeI. Our work opens a new route for designing topological spintronics devices based on inversion asymmetric heterostructures.

References in corpus (5)

• Topological Insulators with Inversion Symmetry
• Cross-sectional imaging of individual layers and buried interfaces of graphene-based heterostructures and superlattices
• Strong spin-orbit splitting on Bi surfaces
• Helical Metal Inside a Topological Band Insulator
• Tunable spin-gaps in a quantum-confined geometry

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Direct observation of spin-polarised bulk bands in an inversion-symmetric semiconductor
• Giant switchable Rashba effect in oxide heterostructures
• Vibrational Spectra of Pb2Bi2Te3, PbBi2Te4 and PbBi4Te7 Topological Insulators: Temperature Dependent Raman and Theoretical Insight from DFT Simulations
• Unconventional spin texture in a non-centrosymmetric quantum spin Hall insulator
• Crystal and electronic structure of BiTeI, AuTeI, and PdTeI compounds: A dispersion-corrected density-functional study
• Temperature dependence of the topological phase transition of BiTeI from first principles
• Topological Phase Transitions and a Two-Dimensional Weyl Superconductor in a Half-Metal/Superconductor Heterostructure
• Rashba Effect and Raman Spectra of Tl${}_2$O/PtS${}_2$ Heterostructure
• A topological phase buried in a chalcogenide superlattice monitored by a helicity dependent Kerr measurement
• Kondo effect in a two-dimensional electron gas in the Persistent Spin Helix regime