In conventional domain wall systems the aim of a high domain wall velocity may be hindered by the occurrence of a Walker breakdown at comparably low current density. We show how a Rashba interaction can stabilize the domain wall dynamics and thereby shift the Walker breakdown to higher current densities. The Rashba interaction creates a field like spin torque, which breaks the symmetry of the system and modifies the internal structure of the domain wall. Besides a shift of the Walker breakdown it can additionally induce a chirality switch of the domain wall at sufficient Rashba fields. The preferred chirality may then be chosen by the direction of the current flow. Both, the suppression of the Walker breakdown and the chirality switching, affect the domain wall velocity. This is even more pronounced for short current pulses, where an additional domain wall movement after the pulse in either positive or negative direction can determine the final position of the domain wall.
We study the relaxation dynamics of non-equilibrium chirality distributions of charge carriers in Rashba systems. We find that at low temperature inter-Rashba band transitions become suppressed due to the combined effect of the Rashba momentum split and the chiral spin texture of a Rashba system. Specifically, we show that momentum exchange between carriers and the phonon bath is effectively absent at temperatures where the momentum of thermal phonons is less than twice the Rashba momentum. This allows us to identify inter-carrier scattering as the dominant process by which non-equilibrium chi…
Inversion symmetry in bilayer graphene allows for layered opposite Rashba spin-orbit coupling (LO-RSOC) -- the situation when the RSOC has the same magnitude but the opposite sign in two coupled spatially separated layers. We show that the LO-RSOC results in the loss of spin chirality in the momentum space, in contrast to the common uniform RSOC. This chirality loss makes it difficult to experimentally establish whether the LO-RSOC (on the scale of 10 meV) exists, because the band structure is insensitive to it. To solve this problem, we propose to identify the LO-RSOC either by gating to brea…
We show that a result equivalent to Overhauser's famous Hartree-Fock instability theorem can be established for the case of a two-dimensional electron gas in the presence of Rashba spin-obit coupling. In this case it is the spatially homogeneous paramagnetic chiral ground state that is shown to be differentially unstable with respect to a certain class of distortions of the spin-density-wave and charge-density-wave type. The result holds for all densities. Basic properties of these inhomogeneous states are analyzed.
Polarization-sensitive devices rely on meta-materials to exhibit varying degrees of absorption of light of a given handedness. The chiral surface states of a topological insulator(TI) selectively absorb right and left circularly polarized light in the vicinity of the Dirac cone reaching its maximum of unity at the $ Γ$ point. In this letter, we demonstrate that a band gap open TI with C$_{2v}$ symmetry which is represented through a combination of Rashba and Dresselhaus Hamiltonians alters the preferential absorption of left and right circularly polarized light allowing a smooth variation of t…
The Rashba effect leads to a chiral precession of the spins of moving electrons while the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) generates preference towards a chiral profile of local spins. We predict that the exchange interaction between these two spin systems results in a 'chiral' magnetoresistance depending on the chirality of the local spin texture. We observe this magnetoresistance by measuring the domain wall (DW) resistance in a uniquely designed Pt/Co/Pt zigzag wire, and by changing the chirality of the DW with applying an in-plane magnetic field. A chirality-dependent DW resistance …
Using the Lagrangian formalism, we solve analytically the equations of motion for current-induced domain-wall dynamics in a ferromagnet with Rashba spin-orbit coupling. An exact solution for the domain wall velocity is provided, including the effect of non-equilibrium conduction electron spin-density, Gilbert damping, and the Rashba interaction parameter. We demonstrate explicitly that the influence of spin-orbit interaction can be qualitatively different from the role of non-adiabatic spin-torque in the sense that the former is sensitive to the chirality of the domain wall whereas the latter …
We study the spin relaxation torque in nonmagnetic or ferromagnetic metals with nonuniform spin-orbit coupling within the Keldysh Green's function formalism. In non-magnet, the relaxation torque is shown to arise when the spin-orbit coupling is not uniform. In the absence of an external field, the spin current induced by the relaxation torque is proportional to the vector chirality of Rashba-type spin-orbit field (RSOF). In the presence of an external field, on the other hand, spin relaxation torque arises from the coupling of the external field and vector chirality of RSOF. Our result indicat…
In materials lacking inversion symmetry, the spin-orbit coupling enables the direct connection between the electron's spin and its linear momentum, a phenomenon called inverse spin galvanic effect. In magnetic materials, this effect promotes current-driven torques that can be used to control the magnetization direction electrically. In this work, we investigate the current-driven inverse spin galvanic effect in a quantum well consisting in a magnetic material embedded between dissimilar insulators. Assuming the presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling at the interfaces, we investigate the nature…
We study the effect of the Rashba spin-orbit interaction in the quantum transport of carbon nanotubes with arbitrary chiralities. For certain spin directions, we find a strong spin-polarized electrical current that depends on the diameter of the tube, the length of the Rashba region and on the tube chirality. Predictions for the spin-dependent conductances are presented for different families of achiral and chiral tubes. We have found that different symmetries acting on spatial and spin variables have to be considered in order to explain the relations between spin-resolved conductances in carb…
Spin-momentum locking in topological insulators and materials with Rashba-type interactions is an extremely attractive feature for novel spintronic devices and is therefore under intense investigation. Significant efforts are underway to identify new material systems with spin-momentum locking, but also to create heterostructures with new spintronic functionalities. In the present study we address both subjects and investigate a van der Waals-type heterostructure consisting of the topological insulator Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$ and a single Se-Ta-Se triple-layer (TL) of H-type TaSe$_{2}$ grown by a nov…
Spin-Orbit Coupling-Driven Chirality Switching of Spin Waves in Altermagnets
Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics and Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院物理研究所凝聚态物理国家实验室）；School of Physical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学物理科学学院）；School of Physics, Sun Yat-Sen University（中山大学物理学院）；Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory（松山湖材料实验室）
Chirality and current-driven dynamics of topologically nontrivial 360$^{\circ}$ domain walls (360DWs) in magnetic heterostructures (MHs) are systematically investigated. For MHs with normal substrates, the static 360DWs are Néel-type with no chirality. While for those with heavy-metal substrates, the interfacial Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (iDMI) therein makes 360DWs prefer specific chirality. Under in-plane driving charge currents, as the direct result of "full-circle" topology a certain 360DW does not undergo the "Walker breakdown"-type process like a well-studied 180$^{\circ}$ domain …
We derive the equations of motion of a Domain Wall in a thin-film magnet coupled to the surface states of a Topological Insulator in the presence of of both an electric field along the Domain Wall and a magnetic field perpendicular to the junction. We show how the electric field acts as a chirality stabilizer holding off the appearance of Walker breakdown and enhancing the terminal velocity. We also propose a mechanism to reverse the Domain Wall chirality in a controllable manner by tuning the chiral current flowing through the Wall. An input from a weak perpendicular magnetic field is require…
We consider theoretically domain wall motion driven by spin-orbit and spin Hall torques. We find that it is possible to achieve universal absence of Walker breakdown for all spin-orbit torques using experimentally relevant spin-orbit coupling strengths. For spin-orbit torques other than the pure Rashba spin-orbit torque, this gives a linear current-velocity relation instead of a saturation of the velocity at high current densities. The effect is very robust and is found in both soft and hard magnetic materials, as well as in the presence of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and in coupled …
We study Josephson junctions (JJs) in which the region between the two superconductors is a multichannel system with Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC) where a barrier or a quantum point contact (QPC) is present. These systems might present unconventional Josephson effects such as Josephson currents for zero phase difference or critical currents that \textit{depend on} the current direction. Here, we discuss how the spin polarizing properties of the system in the normal state affect the spin characteristic of the Andreev bound states inside the junction. This results in a strong correlation betw…
The possibility of utilizing the rich spin-dependent properties of graphene has attracted great attention in pursuit of spintronics advances. The promise of high-speed and low-energy consumption devices motivates a search for layered structures that stabilize chiral spin textures such as topologically protected skyrmions. Here we demonstrate that chiral spin textures are induced at graphene/ferromagnetic metal interfaces. This is unexpected because graphene is a weak spin-orbit coupling material and is generally not expected to induce sufficient Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction to affect magn…
We show how the axial (chiral) anomaly induces a spin torque on the magnetization in magnetic Weyl semimetals. The anomaly produces an imbalance in left- and right-handed chirality carriers when non-orthogonal electric and magnetic fields are applied. Such imbalance generates a spin density which exerts a torque on the magnetization, the strength of which can be controlled by the intensity of the applied electric field. We show how this results in an electric control of the chirality of domain walls, as well as in an improvement of the domain wall dynamics, by delaying the onset of the Walker …
We study the motion of several types of domain wall profiles in spin-orbit coupled magnetic nanowires and also the influence of spin-orbit interaction on the ferromagnetic resonance of uniform magnetic films. We extend previous studies by fully considering not only the field-like contribution from the spin-orbit torque, but also the recently derived Slonczewski-like spin-orbit torque. We show that the latter interaction affects both the domain wall velocity and the Walker breakdown threshold non-trivially, which suggests that it should be accounted in experimental data analysis. We find that t…
Electrode-tunable nonlocal charge to spin conversion in WSe$_2$-intercalated bilayer graphene
Institute of Informatics, Slovak Academy of Sciences（斯洛伐克科学院信息学研究所）；Faculty of Physics, University of Belgrade（贝尔格莱德大学物理学院）；Institute of Physics, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice（科希策帕维尔·约瑟夫·沙法里克大学物理研究所）；Institute of Experimental Physics, Slovak Academy of Sciences（斯洛伐克科学院实验物理研究所）；New Technologies Research Centre, University of West Bohemia（西波希米亚大学新技术研究中心）
When a foreign atom is placed on a surface of a metal, the surrounding sea of electrons responds screening the additional charge leading to oscillations or ripples. On surfaces, those electrons are sometimes confined to two-dimensional surface states, whose spin-degeneracy is lifted due to the Rashba effect arising from the spin-orbit interaction of electrons and the inversion asymmetric environment. It is believed that at least for a single adatom scanning tunneling microscopy measurements are insensitive to the Rashba splitting i.e. no signatures in the charge oscillations will be observed. …
We investigate the magnetization dynamics that arise when a thin-film ferromagnet is deposited on a topological insulator (TI), focusing in particular on domain-wall motion via current and the possibility of a spin-wave torque acting on the magnetization. We show analytically that the coupling between the magnetic domain wall and the TI removes the degeneracy of the wall profile with respect to its chirality and topological charge. Moreover, we find that the threshold for Walker breakdown of domain wall motion is substantially increased and determined by the interaction with the TI, allowing f…
We propose a magnetization reversal model to explain the perpendicular switching of a single ferromagnetic layer induced by an in-plane current. Contrary to previously proposed reversal mechanisms that such magnetic switching is directly from the Rashba or spin Hall effects, we suggest that this type of switching arises from the current-induced chirality dependent domain wall motion. By measuring the field dependent switching behaviors, we show that such switching can also be achieved between any two multidomain states, and all of these switching behaviors can be well explained by this model. …
The Berry phase on the Fermi surface and its influence on the conserved spin current in a two-dimensional system with generic $k$-linear spin-orbit interaction are investigated. We calculate the response of the effective conserved spin current to the applied electric field, which is composed of conventional and spin torque currents, by using the Kubo formula. We find that the conventional spin current is not determined by the Berry phase effect. Remarkably, the spin torque Hall current is found to be proportional to the Berry phase, and the longitudinal spin torque current vanishes because of …
The quantum-mechanical counterpart of a classical random walk offers a rich dynamics that has recently been shown to include topologically protected bound states (zero-modes) at boundaries or domain walls. Here we show that a topological zero-mode may acquire a dynamical role in the presence of nonlinearities. We consider a one-dimensional discrete-time quantum walk that combines zero-modes with a particle-conserving nonlinear relaxation mechanism. The presence of both particle-hole and chiral symmetry converts two zero-modes of opposite chirality into an attractor-repeller pair of the nonline…
The domain wall motion in a magnetic nanowire is examined theoretically in the regime where the domain wall driving force is weak and its competition against disorders is assisted by thermal agitations. Two types of driving forces are considered; magnetic field and current. While the field induces the domain wall motion through the Zeeman energy, the current induces the domain wall motion by generating the spin transfer torque, of which effects in this regime remain controversial. The spin transfer torque has two mutually orthogonal vector components, the adiabatic spin transfer torque and the…
