Giant switchable Rashba effect in oxide heterostructures

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that giant, controllable Rashba spin splitting can be achieved in oxide heterostructures, specifically BaTiO3/BaOsO3, enabling potential room-temperature spintronic devices like the Datta-Das transistor.

Contribution

It introduces a novel oxide heterostructure that exhibits a giant, electric-field tunable Rashba effect, advancing the understanding and control of spin splitting in materials.

Findings

Giant Rashba spin splitting observed in BaTiO3/BaOsO3 heterostructures.

Electric field can fully control the Rashba effect via ferroelectric distortions.

Potential for room-temperature spintronic applications like the Datta-Das transistor.

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.