Emergence of radial Rashba spin-orbit fields in twisted van der Waals heterostructures
Abstract
Rashba spin-orbit coupling is a quintessential spin interaction appearing in virtually any electronic heterostructure. Its paradigmatic spin texture in the momentum space forms a tangential vector field. Using first-principles investigations, we demonstrate that in twisted homobilayers and heteromultilayers, the Rashba spin texture can be predominantly radial, parallel to the momentum. Specifically, we study four experimentally relevant structures: twisted bilayer graphene (Gr), twisted bilayer WSe2, and twisted multilayers WSe2/Gr /WSe2 and WSe2/Gr /Gr /WSe2. We show that the Rashba spin texture in such structures can be controlled by an electric field, allowing to tune it from radial to tangential. Such spin-orbit engineering should be useful for designing spin-charge conversion and spin-orbit torque schemes, as well as for controlling correlated phases and superconductivity in van der Waals materials.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review B
- Pub Date:
- June 2024
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevB.109.L241403
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2402.12353
- Bibcode:
- 2024PhRvB.109x1403F
- Keywords:
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- Condensed Matter - Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics