A stable platform to synthesize ultrathin heavy metals, with a strong
interfacial Rashba effect, could lead to high efficiency charge-to-spin
conversion for next-generation spintronics. Here we report wafer-scale
synthesis of air-stable, epitaxially registered monolayer Pb on SiC (0001) via
confinement heteroepitaxy (CHet). The highly asymmetric interfacial bonding in
this heavy metal system lends to strong Rashba spin-orbit coupling near the
Fermi level. Additionally, the system's air stability enables ex-situ spin
torque ferromagnetic resonance (ST-FMR) measurements that demonstrate
charge-to-spin conversion in CHet-based 2D-Pb/ferromagnet heterostructures and
a 1.5x increase in the effective field ratio compared to control samples.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures. Supporting Information included (20 pages, 9
figures, 1 table