No Arabic abstract
Microscopic mechanism for the Rashba-type band splitting is examined in detail. We show how asymmetric charge distribution is formed when local orbital angular momentum (OAM) and crystal momentum get interlocked due to surface effects. An electrostatic energy term in the Hamiltonian appears when such OAM and crystal momentum dependent asymmetric charge distribution is placed in an electric field produced from an inversion symmetry breaking (ISB). Analysis by using an effective Hamiltonian shows that, as the atomic spin-orbit coupling (SOC) strength increases from weak to strong, originally OAM-quenched states evolve into well-defined chiral OAM states and then to total angular momentum J-states. In addition, the energy scale of the band splitting changes from atomic SOC energy to electrostatic energy. To confirm the validity of the model, we study OAM and spin structures of Au(111) system by using an effective Hamiltonian for the d-orbitals case. As for strong SOC regime, we choose Bi2Te2Se as a prototype system. We performed circular dichroism angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiments as well as first-principles calculations. We find that the effective model can explain various aspects of spin and OAM structures of the system.
We study the band structure of the $text{Bi}_2text{Se}_3$ topological insulator (111) surface using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. We examine the situation where two sets of quantized subbands exhibiting different Rashba spin-splitting are created via bending of the conduction (CB) and the valence (VB) bands at the surface. While the CB subbands are strongly Rashba spin-split, the VB subbands do not exhibit clear spin-splitting. We find that CB and VB experience similar band bending magnitudes, which means, a spin-splitting discrepancy due to different surface potential gradients can be excluded. On the other hand, by comparing the experimental band structure to first principles LMTO band structure calculations, we find that the strongly spin-orbit coupled Bi 6$p$ orbitals dominate the orbital character of CB, whereas their admixture to VB is rather small. The spin-splitting discrepancy is, therefore, traced back to the difference in spin-orbit coupling between CB and VB in the respective subbands regions.
We use scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) to study charge density wave (CDW) states in the rare-earth di-telluride, CeTe$_{2}$. In contrast to previous experimental and first-principles studies of the rare-earth di-tellurides, our STM measurements surprisingly detect a unidirectional CDW with $textit{q}$ ~ 0.28 $textit{a}$*, which is very close to what is found in experimental measurements of the related rare-earth tri-tellurides. Furthermore, in the vicinity of an extended sub-surface defect, we find spatially-separated as well as spatially-coexisting unidirectional CDWs at the surface of CeTe$_{2}$. We quantify the nanoscale strain and its variations induced by this defect, and establish a correlation between local lattice strain and the locally-established CDW states. Our measurements probe the fundamental properties of a weakly-bound two-dimensional Te-sheet, which experimental and theoretical work has previously established as the fundamental component driving much of the essential physics in both the rare-earth di- and tri-telluride compounds.
We quantify the degree of disorder in the {pi}-{pi} stacking direction of crystallites of a high performing semicrystalline semiconducting polymer with advanced X-ray lineshape analysis. Using first principles calculations, we obtain the density of states of a system of {pi}-{pi} stacked polymer chains with increasing amounts of paracrystalline disorder. We find that for an aligned film of PBTTT the paracrystalline disorder is 7.3%. This type of disorder induces a tail of trap states with a breadth of ~100 meV as determined through calculation. This finding agrees with previous device modeling and provides physical justification for the mobility edge model.
Strong Rashba effects at surfaces and interfaces have attracted great attention for basic scientific exploration and practical applications. Here, the first-principles investigation shows that giant and tunable Rashba effects can be achieved in KTaO$_3$ (KTO) ultrathin films by applying biaxial stress. When increasing the in-plane compressive strain nearly to -5%, the Rashba spin splitting energy reaches $E_{R}=140$ meV, approximately corresponding to the Rashba coupling constant $alpha_{R}=1.3$ eV {AA}. We investigate its strain-dependent crystal structures, energy bands, and related properties, and thereby elucidate the mechanism for the giant Rashba effects. Furthermore, we show that giant Rashba spin splitting can be kept in the presence of SrTiO$_3$ capping layer and/or Si substrate, and strong circular photogalvanic effect can be achieved to generate spin-polarized currents in the KTO thin films or related heterostructures, which are promising for future spintronic and optoelectronic applications.
Chiral spin textures at the interface between ferromagnetic and heavy nonmagnetic metals, such as Neel-type domain walls and skyrmions, have been studied intensively because of their great potential for future nanomagnetic devices. The Dyzaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) is an essential phenomenon for the formation of such chiral spin textures. In spite of recent theoretical progress aiming at understanding the microscopic origin of the DMI, an experimental investigation unravelling the physics at stake is still required. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the close correlation of the DMI with the anisotropy of the orbital magnetic moment and with the magnetic dipole moment of the ferromagnetic metal. The density functional theory and the tight-binding model calculations reveal that asymmetric electron occupation in orbitals gives rise to this correlation.