Topological Change of the Fermi Surface in Low Density Rashba Gases: Application to Superconductivity

Abstract

Strong spin-orbit coupling can have a profound effect on the electronic structure in a metal or semiconductor, particularly for low electron concentrations. We show how, for small values of the Fermi energy compared to the spin-orbit splitting of Rashba type, a topological change of the Fermi surface leads to an effective reduction of the dimensionality in the electronic density of states. We investigate its consequences on the onset of the superconducting instability. We show, by solving the Eliashberg equations for the critical temperature as a function of spin-orbit coupling and electron density, that the superconducting critical temperature is significantly tuned in this regime by the spin-orbit coupling. We suggest that materials with strong spin-orbit coupling are good candidates for enhanced superconductivity.

5 pages, 2 figures eps

References in corpus (5)

• Strong spin-orbit splitting on Bi surfaces
• Crystal Symmetry, Electron-Phonon Coupling, and Superconducting Tendencies in Li${}_2$Pd${}_3$B and Li${}_2$Pt${}_3$B
• Spin Hall Effect
• Electronic and spin properties of Rashba billiards
• Spin-Hall Conductivity in Electron-Phonon Coupled Systems

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Rashba type spin-orbit splitting of quantum well states in ultrathin Pb films
• Unconventional Fermi surface spin textures in the Bi_xPb_{1-x}/Ag(111) surface alloy
• Electron-phonon effects on spin-orbit split bands of two dimensional systems
• Energy levels of a two-dimensional hydrogen atom with spin-orbit Rashba interaction
• Impact of spin-orbit coupling on the Holstein polaron
• Spatial trends of non-collinear exchange coupling mediated by itinerant carriers with different Fermi surfaces