Researchers demonstrate non-volatile control of spin-to-charge conversion in germanium telluride

A team of researchers at Politecnico di Milano, University Grenoble Alpes and other institutes worldwide have recently demonstrated the non-volatile control of the spin-to-charge conversion in germanium telluride, a known Rashba semiconductor, at room temperature. Their work could have important implications for the future development of spintronic devices.

The Rashba effect, discovered in 1959, entails a momentum-independent splitting of spin bands in two-dimensional condensed matter systems. In ferroelectric Rashba semiconductors, this effect can be reversed by switching the direction of the ferroelectric polarization. The idea that Rashba spin-splitting in these materials can be controlled was confirmed by a series of first-principle calculations by S. Picozzi and later validated in spectroscopic experiments using germanium telluride, which is thus often considered the ‘prototype’ of the ferroelectric Rashba class of semiconductors.