61 research outputs found
Orbital contribution to the magnetic properties of nanowires: Is the orbital polarization ansatz justified?
We show that considerable orbital magnetic moments and magneto-crystalline
anisotropy energies are obtained for a Fe monatomic wire described in a
tight-binding method with intra-atomic electronic interactions treated in a
full Hartree Fock (HF) decoupling scheme. Even-though the use of the orbital
polarization ansatz with simplified Hamiltonians leads to fairly good results
when the spin magnetization is saturated this is not the case of unsaturated
systems. We conclude that the full HF scheme is necessary to investigate low
dimensional systems
Giant orbital moments are responsible for the anisotropic magnetoresistance of atomic contacts
We study here, both experimentally and theoretically, the anisotropy of
magnetoresistance in atomic contacts. Our measurements on iron break junctions
reveal an abrupt and hysteretic switch between two conductance levels when a
large applied field is continuously rotated. We show that this behaviour stems
from the coexistence of two metastable electronic states which result from the
anisotropy of electronic interactions responsible for the enhancement of
orbital magnetization. In both states giant orbital moments appear on the low
coordinated central atom in a realistic contact geometry. However they differ
by their orientation, parallel or perpendicular, with respect to the axis of
the contact. Our explanation is totally at variance with the usual model based
on the band structure of a monatomic linear chain, which we argue cannot be
applied to 3d ferromagnetic metals
Atomic and Electronic Structure of a Rashba - Junction at the BiTeI Surface
The non-centrosymmetric semiconductor BiTeI exhibits two distinct surface
terminations that support spin-split Rashba surface states. Their ambipolarity
can be exploited for creating spin-polarized - junctions at the
boundaries between domains with different surface terminations. We use scanning
tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS) to locate such junctions and
investigate their atomic and electronic properties. The Te- and I-terminated
surfaces are identified owing to their distinct chemical reactivity, and an
apparent height mismatch of electronic origin. The Rashba surface states are
revealed in the STS spectra by the onset of a van Hove singularity at the band
edge. Eventually, an electronic depletion is found on interfacial Te atoms,
consistent with the formation of a space charge area in typical -
junctions.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Strong out-of-plane magnetic anisotropy of Fe adatoms on BiTe
The electronic and magnetic properties of individual Fe atoms adsorbed on the
surface of the topological insulator BiTe(111) are investigated.
Scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy prove the existence of two
distinct types of Fe species, while our first-principles calculations assign
them to Fe adatoms in the hcp and fcc hollow sites. The combination of x-ray
magnetic circular dichroism measurements and angular dependent magnetization
curves reveals out-of-plane anisotropies for both species with anisotropy
constants of meV/atom and meV/atom. These values are well in line with the results of
calculations.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
Reflection mechanism for generating spin transfer torque without charge current
A reflection mechanism for generating spin-transfer torque is proposed. It is due to interference of bias-driven nonequilibrium electrons incident on a switching junction, with the electrons reflected from an insulating barrier inserted in the junction after the switching magnet. It is shown, using the rigorous Keldysh formalism, that this out-of-plane torque T⊥ is proportional to an applied bias and is as large as the torque in a conventional junction generated by a strong charge current. However, the charge current and the in-plane torque T∥ are almost completely suppressed by the insulating barrier. This junction thus offers the highly applicable possibility of bias-induced switching of magnetization without charge current
BiTeCl and BiTeBr: a comparative high-pressure optical study
We here report a detailed high-pressure infrared transmission study of BiTeCl
and BiTeBr. We follow the evolution of two band transitions: the optical
excitation between two Rashba-split conduction bands, and the
absorption across the band gap. In the low pressure range, ~GPa,
for both compounds is approximately constant with pressure and
decreases, in agreement with band structure calculations. In BiTeCl, a clear
pressure-induced phase transition at 6~GPa leads to a different ground state.
For BiTeBr, the pressure evolution is more subtle, and we discuss the
possibility of closing and reopening of the band gap. Our data is consistent
with a Weyl phase in BiTeBr at 56~GPa, followed by the onset of a structural
phase transition at 7~GPa.Comment: are welcom
Observation of Weyl nodes in robust type-II Weyl semimetal WP2
Distinct to type-I Weyl semimetals (WSMs) that host quasiparticles described
by the Weyl equation, the energy dispersion of quasiparticles in type-II WSMs
violates Lorentz invariance and the Weyl cones in the momentum space are
tilted. Since it was proposed that type-II Weyl fermions could emerge from
(W,Mo)Te2 and (W,Mo)P2 families of materials, a large numbers of experiments
have been dedicated to unveil the possible manifestation of type-II WSM, e.g.
the surface-state Fermi arcs. However, the interpretations of the experimental
results are very controversial. Here, using angle-resolved photoemission
spectroscopy supported by the first-principles calculations, we probe the
tilted Weyl cone bands in the bulk electronic structure of WP2 directly, which
are at the origin of Fermi arcs at the surfaces and transport properties
related to the chiral anomaly in type-II WSMs. Our results ascertain that due
to the spin-orbit coupling the Weyl nodes originate from the splitting of
4-fold degenerate band-crossing points with Chern numbers C = 2 induced by
the crystal symmetries of WP2, which is unique among all the discovered WSMs.
Our finding also provides a guiding line to observe the chiral anomaly which
could manifest in novel transport properties.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure
Strong enhancement of the tunneling magnetoresistance by electron filtering in an Fe/MgO/Fe/GaAs(001) junction
Calculations of the tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) of an epitaxial Fe/MgO/Fe tunneling junction attached to an n-type GaAs lead, under positive gate voltage, are presented. It is shown that for realistic GaAs carrier densities the TMR of this composite system can be more than 2 orders of magnitude higher than that of a conventional Fe/MgO/Fe junction. Furthermore, the high TMR is achieved with modest MgO thicknesses and is very robust to disorder at the Fe/GaAs interface and within the GaAs layer itself. The significant practical advantage of this system is that huge TMRs should be attainable for junctions with modest resistances. For a GaAs carrier density of 1019??cm-3 the system is calculated to have a TMR in excess of 10?000% but its resistance is equivalent to that of a conventional Fe/MgO/Fe junction with only 6–7 at. planes of MgO
Giant ambipolar Rashba effect in a semiconductor: BiTeI
We observe a giant spin-orbit splitting in bulk and surface states of the
non-centrosymmetric semiconductor BiTeI. We show that the Fermi level can be
placed in the valence or in the conduction band by controlling the surface
termination. In both cases it intersects spin-polarized bands, in the
corresponding surface depletion and accumulation layers. The momentum splitting
of these bands is not affected by adsorbate-induced changes in the surface
potential. These findings demonstrate that two properties crucial for enabling
semiconductor-based spin electronics -- a large, robust spin splitting and
ambipolar conduction -- are present in this material.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Controlled Growth of a Line Defect in Graphene and Implications for Gate-Tunable Valley Filtering
Atomically precise tailoring of graphene can enable unusual transport
pathways and new nanometer-scale functional devices. Here we describe a recipe
for the controlled production of highly regular "5-5-8" line defects in
graphene by means of simultaneous electron irradiation and Joule heating by
applied electric current. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy
reveals individual steps of the growth process. Extending earlier theoretical
work suggesting valley-discriminating capabilities of a graphene 5-5-8 line
defect, we perform first-principles calculations of transport and find a strong
energy dependence of valley polarization of the charge carriers across the
defect. These findings inspire us to propose a compact electrostatically gated
"valley valve" device, a critical component for valleytronics
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