S. V. Eremeev, I. A. Nechaev, E. V. Chulkov, “Giant Rashba-type spin splitting at polar surfaces of BiTeI”, Pis'ma v Zh. Èksper. Teoret. Fiz., 2012, Volume 96, Issue 7,Pages <nobr>484

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CONDENSED MATTER

Giant Rashba-type spin splitting at polar surfaces of BiTeI

S. V. Eremeev^ab, I. A. Nechaev^bc, E. V. Chulkov^dc

^a Institute of Strength Physics and Materials Science, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences
^b Tomsk State University
^c Donostia International Physics Center
^d Departamento de Física de Materiales, Facultad de Quimica, UPV/EHU, San Sebastian, Basque Country

Abstract: On the basis of relativistic ab-initio calculations, we show that both Te- and I-terminated surfaces of the polar layered semiconductor BiTeI hold surface states with a giant Rashba-type spin splitting. The Te-terminated surface state has nearly isotropic free-electron-like dispersion with a positive effective mass, which along with the giant spin splitting makes BiTeI fulfilling the requirements demanded by many semiconductor-spintronics applications. The I-terminated surface state with its negative effective-mass dispersion reproduces nicely the situation with the Rashba-split surface state on surfaces of noble-metal based surface alloys. The crucial advantage of BiTeI as compared with the surface alloys is the location of the I-terminated surface state in a quite wide band gap.

Received: 01.08.2012

Language: English