285 research outputs found
Spin-helical Dirac states in graphene induced by polar-substrate surfaces with giant spin-orbit interaction: a new platform for spintronics
Spintronics, or spin electronics, is aimed at efficient control and
manipulation of spin degrees of freedom in electron systems. To comply with
demands of nowaday spintronics, the studies of electron systems hosting giant
spin-orbit-split electron states have become one of the most important
directions providing us with a basis for desirable spintronics devices. In
construction of such devices, it is also tempting to involve graphene, which
has attracted great attention because of its unique and remarkable electronic
properties and was recognized as a viable replacement for silicon in
electronics. In this case, a challenging goal is to make graphene Dirac states
spin-polarized. Here, we report on absolutely new promising pathway to create
spin-polarized Dirac states based on coupling of graphene and polar-substrate
surface states with giant Rashba-type spin-splitting. We demonstrate how the
spin-helical Dirac states are formed in graphene deposited on the surface of
BiTeCl. This coupling induces spin separation of the originally spin-degenerate
graphene states and results in fully helical in-plane spin polarization of the
Dirac electrons.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Rashba split surface states in BiTeBr
Within density functional theory, we study bulk band structure and surface
states of BiTeBr. We consider both ordered and disordered phases which differ
in atomic order in the Te-Br sublattice. On the basis of relativistic ab-initio
calculations, we show that the ordered BiTeBr is energetically preferable as
compared with the disordered one. We demonstrate that both Te- and
Br-terminated surfaces of the ordered BiTeBr hold surface states with a giant
spin-orbit splitting. The Te-terminated surface-state spin splitting has the
Rashba-type behavior with the coupling parameter \alpha_R ~ 2 eV\AA.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure
Non-Dirac topological surface states in (SnTe)(BiTe)
A new type of topological spin-helical surface states was discovered in
layered van der Waals bonded (SnTe)(BiTe) compounds
which comprise two covalently bonded band inverted subsystems, SnTe and
BiTe, within a building block. This novel topological states
demonstrate non-Dirac dispersion within the band gap. The dispersion of the
surface state has two linear sections of different slope with shoulder feature
between them. Such a dispersion of the topological surface state enables
effective switch of the velocity of topological carriers by means of applying
an external electric field
Many-body effects on the Rashba-type spin splitting in bulk bismuth tellurohalides
We report on many-body corrections to one-electron energy spectra of bulk
bismuth tellurohalides---materials that exhibit a giant Rashba-type spin
splitting of the band-gap edge states. We show that the corrections obtained in
the one-shot approximation noticeably modify the spin-orbit-induced spin
splitting evaluated within density functional theory. We demonstrate that
taking into account many-body effects is crucial to interpret the available
experimental data.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figur
Magnetic proximity effect at the 3D topological insulator/magnetic insulator interface
The magnetic proximity effect is a fundamental feature of heterostructures
composed of layers of topological insulators and magnetic materials since it
underlies many potential applications in devices with novel quantum
functionality. Within density functional theory we study magnetic proximity
effect at the 3D topological insulator/magnetic insulator (TI/MI) interface in
BiSe/MnSe(111) system as an example. We demonstrate that a gapped
ordinary bound state which spectrum depends on the interface potential arises
in the immediate region of the interface. The gapped topological Dirac state
also arises in the system owing to relocation to deeper atomic layers of
topological insulator. The gap in the Dirac cone is originated from an
overlapping of the topological and ordinary interfacial states. This result
being also corroborated by the analytic model, is a key aspect of the magnetic
proximity effect mechanism in the TI/MI structures.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure
Unoccupied Topological States on Bismuth Chalcogenides
The unoccupied part of the band structure of topological insulators
BiTeSe () is studied by angle-resolved two-photon
photoemission and density functional theory. For all surfaces
linearly-dispersing surface states are found at the center of the surface
Brillouin zone at energies around 1.3 eV above the Fermi level. Theoretical
analysis shows that this feature appears in a spin-orbit-interaction induced
and inverted local energy gap. This inversion is insensitive to variation of
electronic and structural parameters in BiSe and BiTeSe. In
BiTe small structural variations can change the character of the local
energy gap depending on which an unoccupied Dirac state does or does not exist.
Circular dichroism measurements confirm the expected spin texture. From these
findings we assign the observed state to an unoccupied topological surface
state
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