Electronic Raman scattering from 2D metals with broken inversion symmetry

TL;DR

This paper develops a theory of electronic Raman scattering in 2D metals lacking inversion symmetry, revealing how spin-orbit coupling influences spin excitations and their detection via polarized light.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to probe spin excitations in 2D metals with broken inversion symmetry using inelastic photon scattering without resonance tuning.

Findings

Raman scattering couples to spin excitations due to broken SU(2) symmetry.

Spectra show resonant features near SOC-splitting energies in specific polarization geometries.

Graphene exhibits stronger Raman signals than 2DEG due to high Dirac velocity.

Abstract

Lack of inversion symmetry in metals breaks SU(2) symmetry which results in spin-splitting of the electronic states at the Fermi level due to various types of spin-orbit coupling (SOC) such as Dresselhaus, Rashba, or Ising (also called valley-Zeeman). This splitting is known to enable both incoherent spin-flip excitations and coherent chiral-spin modes. Another effect of breaking of SU(2) is the introduction of a direct spin-photon interaction. We use this concept to formulate a theory of inelastic scattering of photons from the charge carriers of such a system [electronic Raman scattering (eRS)]. As a result of broken SU(2), we show that the eRS probe, unlike conventional theory of Raman scattering, couples to spin excitations even without tuning the laser to an internal resonance. We show that the spin dependent excitations induced by photon scattering are sensitive to the polarization geometries as well as to the spin structure of the Hilbert space of the low-energy states. As a concrete realization, we examine doped/gated graphene on substrates with strong SOC with various compositions of Rashba and valley-Zeeman SOC and compare their spectra with those for a model 2D electron gas (2DEG). The spectra are shown to have a resonant feature in select polarization geometries near the SOC-splitting energy and, importantly, is shown to be different in the two systems. The signal in graphene systems is shown to be stronger than that in a 2DEG by orders of magnitude owing to the large Dirac velocity. We also outline how the lineshapes from the spectra can be used to infer various components of SOC in the system.