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arXiv · 1809.00805

Fe/GeTe(111) heterostructures as an avenue towards 'ferroelectric Rashba semiconductors'-based spintronics

Jagoda Slawinska·Domenico Di Sante·Sara Varotto·Christian Rinaldi·Riccardo Bertacco·Silvia Picozzi
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Abstract

By performing density functional theory (DFT) and Green's functions calculations, complemented by X-ray Photoemission Spectroscopy, we investigate the electronic structure of Fe/GeTe(111), a prototypical ferromagnetic/Rashba-ferroelectric interface. We reveal that such system exhibits several intriguing properties resulting from the complex interplay of exchange interaction, electric polarization and spin-orbit coupling. Despite a rather strong interfacial hybridization between Fe and GeTe bands, resulting in a complete suppression of the surface states of the latter, the bulk Rashba bands are hardly altered by the ferromagnetic overlayer. This could have a deep impact on spin dependent phenomena observed at this interface, such as spin-to-charge interconversion, which are likely to involve bulk rather than surface Rashba states.

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Jagoda Slawinska, Domenico Di Sante, Sara Varotto, Christian Rinaldi, Riccardo Bertacco, Silvia Picozzi. 2019-07-09. Fe/GeTe(111) heterostructures as an avenue towards 'ferroelectric Rashba semiconductors'-based spintronics. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.99.075306

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