Hidden spin polarization in inversion-symmetric bulk crystals

By Xiuwen Zhang, Qihang Liu, Jun-Wei Luo, A. Freeman, Alex Zunger. Nature Physics, 2014

518 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Spin–orbit coupling can induce spin polarization in nonmagnetic 3D crystals when the inversion symmetry is broken, as manifested by the bulk Rashba and Dresselhaus effects. We establish that these spin-polarization effects originate fundamentally from specific atomic site asymmetries, rather than, as generally accepted, from the asymmetry of the crystal space group. This understanding leads to the recognition that a previously overlooked hidden form of spin polarization should exist in centrosymmetric crystals. Although all energy bands must be doubly degenerate in centrosymmetric materials, we find that the two components of such doubly degenerate bands could have opposite polarizations, each spatially localized on one of the two separate sectors forming the inversion partners. We demonstrate such hidden spin polarizations in particular centrosymmetric crystals by first-principles calculations. This new understanding could considerably broaden the range of currently useful spintronic materials and enable the control of spin polarization by means of operations on the atomic scale. Spin polarization due to spin–orbit coupling requires broken inversion symmetry. Now, calculations show that the effect arises from local site-asymmetry rather than global space-group asymmetry, and that a hitherto overlooked form of spin polarization should also exist in centrosymmetric structures.

Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Condensed Matter Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/eafe2d0991119431d971c582a1cd9441dd9ee18b

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

1. Ashvin Vishwanath
2. N. P. Armitage
3. A. Manchon
4. E. Mele
5. Y. Tserkovnyak
6. M. Tsoi
7. T. Ono
8. V. Baltz

In Condensed Matter Physics

1. A. Manchon
2. Ashvin Vishwanath
3. Y. Tserkovnyak
4. T. Ono
5. V. Baltz
6. N. P. Armitage
7. E. Mele
8. M. Tsoi

Citations in the corpus

• Direct observation of spin-polarized bulk bands in an inversion-symmetric semiconductor (2014, background): “After completion of our study, we became aware of a very recent theory that has established the general grounds by which such a lack of inversion symmetry of the crystal site point group can lead to a macroscopic spin polarisation, driven by the local nature of spin-orbit coupling.(6) Our layer-proj”
• Antiferromagnetic spintronics (2016, methodology): “I.C.2)], spin-orbit effects [e.g., the inverse spin Hall effect (Mendes et al., 2014; W. Zhang et al., 2014) (see Sec.”
• Angle-resolved photoemission studies of quantum materials (2020, unknown): “34) (Jin et al., 2013; Yuan et al., 2016; Zhang et al., 2014d).”
• Weyl and Dirac semimetals in three-dimensional solids (2017, background): “This arises from local inversion symmetry breaking within the unit cell (Zhang et al., 2014b).”