Tunning Spin Hall conductivities in GeTe by Ferroelectric Polarization

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that ferroelectric polarization in GeTe can be used to tune spin Hall conductivity, offering a new way to control spin currents in spintronic devices based on first-principles calculations.

Contribution

It reveals how ferroelectricity influences spin Hall conductivity in GeTe through density functional theory, highlighting the role of spin texture and symmetry considerations.

Findings

SHC can be tuned by ferroelectric polarization.

The magnitude of SHC component σ_xy^z can reach 100 ħ/e/(Ωcm).

Spin texture variation is driven by electric fields and symmetry.

Abstract

Controlling charge-spin current conversion by electric fields is crucial in spintronic devices, which can be realized in diatom ferroelectric semiconductor GeTe where it is established that ferroelectricity can change the spin texture. We demonstrated that the spin Hall conductivity (SHC) can be further tuned by ferroelectricity based on the density functional theory calculations. The spin texture variation driven by the electric fields was elucidated from the symmetry point of view, highlighting the interlocked spin and orbital degrees of freedom. We observed that the origin of SHC can be attributed to the Rashba effect and the intrinsic spin-orbit coupling. The magnitude of one component of SHC {\sigma}_xy^z can reach as large as 100 {\hbar}/e/({\Omega}cm) in the vicinity of the band edge, which is promising for engineering spintronic devices. Our work on tunable spin transport properties via the ferroelectric polarization brings novel assets into the field of spintronics.