A Novel Ferroelectric Rashba Semiconductor.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 38100676.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1002/adma.202310278 and PMC identifier 11475528.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Fast, reversible, and low-power manipulation of the spin texture is crucial for next generation spintronic devices like non-volatile bipolar memories, switchable spin current injectors or spin field effect transistors. Ferroelectric Rashba semiconductors (FERSC) are the ideal class of materials for the realization of such devices. Their ferroelectric character enables an electronic control of the Rashba-type spin texture by means of the reversible and switchable polarization. Yet, only very few materials are established to belong to this class of multifunctional materials. Here, Pb<sub>1-</sub> <sub>x</sub>Ge<sub>x</sub>Te is unraveled as a novel FERSC system down to nanoscale. The ferroelectric phase transition and concomitant lattice distortion are demonstrated by temperature dependent X-ray diffraction, and their effect on electronic properties are measured by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. In few nanometer-thick epitaxial heterostructures, a large Rashba spin-splitting is exhibiting a wide tuning range as a function of temperature and Ge content. This work defines Pb<sub>1-</sub> <sub>x</sub>Ge<sub>x</sub>Te as a high-potential FERSC system for spintronic applications.