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Spintronics

A lucky break

Nature Physics volume 10, pages 798–799 (2014)Cite this article

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The ability to harness spin polarization is critical for many semiconductor spin devices. It now seems that spin–orbit coupling with locally broken symmetry can enable a giant spin polarization in a semiconductor that is otherwise inversion symmetric.

In semiconductor systems, spin–orbit coupling governs everything from spin transport phenomena to the physics behind optical control of spins. To generate a spin polarization in the bulk bands of a system protected by time-reversal symmetry, global inversion symmetry needs to be broken. But now, writing in Nature Physics, Jonathon Riley and colleagues1 have shown that local symmetry breaking can lead to a new type of spin polarization.

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Figure 1: Valley-dependent spin polarization in an inversion-symmetric crystal.

References

  1. Riley, J. M. et al. Nature Phys. 10, 835–839 (2014).

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  2. Xu, X., Yao, W., Xiao, D. & Heinz, T. F. Nature Phys. 10, 343–350 (2014).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. John Schaibley is in the Department of Physics at the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA,

    John Schaibley

  2. Xiaodong Xu is in the Departments of Physics and Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA,

    Xiaodong Xu

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  1. John Schaibley
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  2. Xiaodong Xu
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Correspondence to John Schaibley or Xiaodong Xu.

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Schaibley, J., Xu, X. A lucky break. Nature Phys 10, 798–799 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3138

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