Ubiquitous Spin-Orbit Coupling in a Screw Dislocation with High Spin Coherency

ORAL

Abstract

We theoretically demonstrate that screw dislocation (SD), a 1D topological defect widely present in semiconductors, exhibits ubiquitously a new form of spin-orbit coupling (SOC) effect. Differing from the widely known conventional 2D Rashba-Dresselhaus (RD) SOC effect that typically exists at surfaces or interfaces, the deep-level nature of SD-SOC states in semiconductors readily makes it an ideal SOC. Remarkably, the spin texture of 1D SD-SOC, pertaining to the inherent symmetry of SD, exhibits a significantly higher degree of spin coherency than the 2D RD-SOC. Moreover, the 1D SD-SOC can be tuned by ionicity in compound semiconductors to ideally suppress spin relaxation, as demonstrated by comparative first-principles calculations of SDs in Si/Ge, GaAs, and SiC. Our findings therefore open a new door to manipulating spin transport in semiconductors by taking advantage of an otherwise detrimental topological defect.

*Science Challenge Project (No. TZ2016003), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2017M610754), NSFC (Grants No. 11574024 and No. 11704021), and NSAF (No. U1530401). U.S. DOE (No. DE-FG02-04ER46148).

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Presenters

  • Lin Hu

    • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Utah
    • Beijing Computational Science Research Center
    • University of Utah

Authors

  • Lin Hu

    • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Utah
    • Beijing Computational Science Research Center
    • University of Utah

  • Huaqing Huang

    • University of Utah

  • Zhengfei Wang

    • University of Science and Technology of China

  • Wei Jiang

    • Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Minnesota
    • University of Utah

  • Xiaojuan Ni

    • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Utah
    • University of Utah

  • Yinong Zhou

    • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Utah
    • University of Utah

  • V Zielasek

    • University of Bremen

  • Max G Lagally

    • University of Wisconsin-Madison
    • University of Wisconsin
    • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison

  • Bing Huang

    • Beijing Computational Science Research Center
    • University of Utah

  • Feng Liu

    • Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Utah
    • University of Utah