Ferroelectric Rashba semiconductors as a novel class of multifunctional materials
Ferroelectric Rashba semiconductors as a novel class of multifunctional materials
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DOI：
10.3389/fphy.2014.00010
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发表时间：
2014-01-01
影响因子：
3.1
通讯作者：
Picozzi, Silvia
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Picozzi, Silvia
在现代材料科学中发现新的性质，效应或微观机制通常是由寻求将几种功能组合成一种化合物所驱动的：不仅后者功能的并列，而且特别是它们的耦合，可以在基本凝聚态物理学，材料科学和技术中开辟新的视野。半导体自旋电子学也不例外。在这种情况下，我们通过密度泛函模拟发现，当一个相当大的自旋轨道耦合与铁电性相结合时，例如在GeTe中，人们获得了新的多功能材料-称为铁电Rashba半导体（FERSC）-其中，由于巨大的Rashba自旋分裂，自旋织构是可控的，并通过电场切换。这种特殊的自旋-电耦合可以在小间隙绝缘体（如硫属化物）中找到天然的运动场，并可以为电控半导体自旋电子学领域带来全新的资产。
The discovery of novel properties, effects or microscopic mechanisms in modern materials science is often driven by the quest for combining, into a single compound, several functionalities: not only the juxtaposition of the latter functionalities, but especially their coupling, can open new horizons in basic condensed matter physics, in materials science and technology. Semiconductor spintronics makes no exception. In this context, we have discovered by means of density-functional simulations that, when a sizeable spin-orbit coupling is combined with ferroelectricity, such as in GeTe, one obtains novel multifunctional materials - called Ferro-Electric Rashba Semi-Conductors (FERSC) - where, thanks to a giant Rashba spin-splitting, the spin texture is controllable and switchable via an electric field. This peculiar spin-electric coupling can find a natural playground in small-gap insulators, such as chalcogenides, and can bring brand new assets into the field of electrically-controlled semiconductor spintronics.