학술논문

Theory of spin-orbit coupling at LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interfaces and SrTiO3 surfaces
Document Type
Working Paper
Source
Phys. Rev. B 87, 161102(R) (2013)
Subject
Condensed Matter - Materials Science
Language
Abstract
The theoretical understanding of the spin-orbit coupling (SOC) effects at LaAlO$_{3}$/SrTiO$_{3}$ interfaces and SrTiO$_{3}$ surfaces is still in its infancy. We perform first-principles density-functional-theory calculations and derive from these a simple tight-binding Hamiltonian, through a Wannier function projection and group theoretical analysis. We find striking differences to the standard Rashba theory for spin-orbit coupling in semiconductor heterostructures due to multi-orbital effects: by far the biggest SOC effect is at the crossing point of the $xy$ and $yz$ (or $zx$) orbitals; and around the $\Gamma$ point a Rashba spin splitting with a cubic dependence on the wave vector $\vec{k}$ is possible.
Comment: The second version explains the k-cubic Rasha effect and the anisotropy found experimentally respectively. It also includes DFT calculations for an antisymmetric interfaces with more layers