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arXiv · 1802.01546

First-principles theory of giant Rashba-like spin-splitting in bulk ferroelectrics

Louis Ponet·Sergey Artyukhin
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Abstract

Recently large Rashba-like spin splitting has been observed in certain bulk ferroelectrics. In contrast with the relativistic Rashba effect, the chiral spin texture and large spin-splitting of the electronic bands depend strongly on the character of the band and atomic spin-orbit coupling. We establish that this can be traced back to the so-called orbital Rashba effect, also in the bulk. This leads to an additional dependence on the orbital composition of the bands, which is crucial for a complete picture of the effect. Results from first-principles calculations on ferroelectic GeTe verify the key predictions of the model.

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Louis Ponet, Sergey Artyukhin. 2018-02-05. First-principles theory of giant Rashba-like spin-splitting in bulk ferroelectrics. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.98.174102

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