Switchable enhanced spin photocurrent in Rashba and cubic Dresselhaus ferroelectric semiconductors

Abstract

Generating and controlling spin current (SC) are of central interest in spin physics and applications. To date, the spin-orbit interaction (SOI) is an established pathway to generate SC through the spin-charge current conversion. We predict an efficient spin-light conversion via the Rashba and higher-order cubic Dresselhaus SOIs in ferroelectrics. Different from the known Edelstein effect, where SC is created by the nonequilibrium spin density, our predicted spin-polarized current is from direct interactions between light and unique spin textures generated by SOI in ferroelectrics. Using first-principles simulations, we demonstrate these concepts by calculating the DC spin photocurrent in a prototypical Rashba ferroelectric, α-GeTe. The photo-induced SC is about two orders of magnitude larger than the charge photocurrent. More importantly, we can conveniently switch the direction of SC by an applied electric field via inverting the spin textures. These predictions give hope to generating and controlling light-driven SC via nonvolatile electric-field.

arXiv comment22 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (22)

• Spintronics: Fundamentals and applications
• First-principles study of the phonon-limited mobility in n-type single-layer MoS2
• Quantum nonlinear Hall effect induced by Berry curvature dipole in time-reversal invariant materials
• Tunable Rashba spin-orbit interaction at oxide interfaces
• Hexagonal Warping Effects in the Surface States of Topological Insulator Bi${}_2$Te${}_3$
• Generation and Electric Control of Spin-Coupled Valley Current in WSe2
• Giant Rashba Splitting in CH3NH3PbBr3 Organic-Inorganic Perovskite
• Inverse Edelstein Effect
• Diagrammatic approach to nonlinear optical response with application to Weyl semimetals
• Magnetically Switchable Light-Matter Interaction in the Two-Dimensional Magnet CrI3
• Ferroelectric control of the spin texture in germanium telluride
• Giant ambipolar Rashba effect in a semiconductor: BiTeI
• Pure spin current from one-photon absorption of linearly polarized light in noncentrosymmetric semiconductors
• Prediction of ferroelectricity-driven Berry curvature enabling charge- and spin-controllable photocurrent in tin telluride monolayers
• Current-voltage characteristic and shot noise of shift current photovoltaics
• Switchable and tunable Rashba-type spin splitting in covalent perovskite oxides
• Optical generation and detection of pure valley current in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides
• Pure spin photocurrents
• Deduction of Pure Spin Current from Spin Linear and Circular Photogalvanic Effect in Semiconductor Quantum Wells
• Injection current in ferroelectric group-IV monochalcogenide monolayers
• Photoinduced pure spin current injection in graphene with Rashba spin-orbit interaction
• Intrinsic Spin Photogalvanic Effect in Nonmagnetic Insulator

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Pure Bulk Orbital and Spin Photocurrent in Two-Dimensional Ferroelectric Materials
• A comprehensive theory of second-order spin photocurrents
• Manipulating Photogalvanic Effects in Two-Dimensional Multiferroic Breathing Kagome Materials
• Coherence Control of Directional Nonlinear Photocurrent in Spatially Symmetric Systems