Giant switchable Rashba effect in oxide heterostructures

Abstract

One of the most fundamental phenomena and a reminder of the electron's relativistic nature is the Rashba spin splitting for broken inversion symmetry. Usually this splitting is a tiny relativistic correction, hardly discernible in experiment. Interfacing a ferroelectric, BaTiO${}_3$, and a heavy 5$d$ metal with a large spin-orbit coupling, Ba(Os,Ir)O${}_3$, we show that giant Rashba spin splittings are indeed possible and even fully controllable by an external electric field. Based on density functional theory and a microscopic tight binding understanding, we conclude that the electric field is amplified and stored as a ferroelectric Ti-O distortion which, through the network of oxygen octahedra, also induces a large Os-O distortion. The BaTiO${}_3$/BaOsO${}_3$ heterostructure is hence the ideal test station for studying the fundamentals of the Rashba effect. It allows intriguing application such as the Datta-Das transistor to operate at room temperature.

This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article:Giant switchable Rashba effect in oxide heterostructures, advanced materials interfaces 2015, 1400445, which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/admi.201400445

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Cited by in corpus (13)

• Oxide spin-orbitronics: spin-charge interconversion and topological spin textures
• Electrical control of magnetism by electric field and current-induced torques
• Possibility of Combining Ferroelectricity and Rashba-like spin splitting in Monolayers of 1T-type Transition-Metal Dichalcogenides MX2
• Enhancement of bulk photovoltaic effect in topological insulators
• Rashba spin-splitting in ferroelectric oxides: from rationalizing to engineering
• Modulated Interlayer Exciton Properties in a Two-Dimensional Moire Crystal
• Unconventional dc transport in Rashba electron gases
• Prediction of giant and ideal Rashba-type splitting in ordered alloy monolayers grown on a polar surface
• Giant Rashba spin splitting in strained KTaO3 ultrathin films for circular photogalvanic currents
• Helical currents in metallic Rashba strips
• Topological superconductivity from transverse optical phonons in oxide heterostructures
• Spin-helix driven insulating phase in two dimensional lattice
• Transport properties of Rashba conducting strips coupled to magnetic moments with spiral order