Switchable Enhanced Spin Photocurrent in Rashba and Cubic Dresselhaus Ferroelectric Semiconductors

Ruixiang Fei*, Shuaiqin Yu, Yan Lu, Linghan Zhu, Li Yang*

*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

Generating and controlling spin current (SC) are of central interest in spin physics and applications. To date, the spin-orbit interaction (SOI) is an established pathway to generate SC through the spin-charge current conversion. We predict an efficient spin-light conversion via the Rashba and higher-order cubic Dresselhaus SOIs in ferroelectrics. Different from the known Edelstein effect, where SC is created by the nonequilibrium spin density, our predicted spin-polarized current is from direct interactions between light and unique spin textures generated by SOI in ferroelectrics. Using first-principles simulations, we demonstrate these concepts by calculating the DC spin photocurrent in a prototypical Rashba ferroelectric, α-GeTe. The photoinduced SC is about 2 orders of magnitude larger than the charge photocurrent. More importantly, we can conveniently switch the direction of SC by an applied electric field via inverting the spin textures. These predictions give hope to generating and controlling light-driven SC via a nonvolatile electric field.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2265-2271
Number of pages7
JournalNano Letters
Volume21
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 10 Mar 2021
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • ferroelectrics
  • field tunable
  • photodriven
  • spin current
  • spin-orbit interaction

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Fei, R., Yu, S., Lu, Y., Zhu, L., & Yang, L. (2021). Switchable Enhanced Spin Photocurrent in Rashba and Cubic Dresselhaus Ferroelectric Semiconductors. Nano Letters, 21(5), 2265-2271. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c00116