• Rinaldi, Christian
• Varotto, Sara
• Sante, Domenico Di
• Bertacco, Riccardo
• Picozzi, Silvia
• Sławińska, Jagoda

Abstract

<p>By performing density functional theory and Green's functions calculations, complemented by x-ray photoemission spectroscopy, we investigate the electronic structure of Fe/GeTe(111), a prototypical ferromagnetic/Rashba-ferroelectric interface. We reveal that such a system exhibits several intriguing properties resulting from the complex interplay of exchange interaction, electric polarization, and spin-orbit coupling. Despite a rather strong interfacial hybridization between Fe and GeTe bands, resulting in a complete suppression of the surface states of the latter, the bulk Rashba bands are hardly altered by the ferromagnetic overlayer. This could have a deep impact on spin-dependent phenomena observed at this interface, such as spin-to-charge interconversion, which are likely to involve bulk rather than surface Rashba states.</p>

Topics

• density
• surface
• theory
• semiconductor
• density functional theory
• spectroscopy