Beyond Rashba: Persistent spin textures as a design principle for spin-orbitronics

NISE Seminar

Date: Jul 14, 2025
Time: 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
Speaker: Jagoda Slawinska
Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, University of Groningen
Location: Max-Planck-Institut für Mikrostrukturphysik, Weinberg 2, 06120 Halle (Saale)
Room: Lecture Hall, B.1.11

Beyond Rashba: Persistent spin textures as a design principle for spin-orbitronics

Crystal symmetries significantly impact the behavior of electrons in solids, including how their spins align and evolve. A particularly important consequence is spin-momentum locking, which defines how an electron’s spin orientation is tied to its momentum. Spin-momentum locking plays a central role in determining the geometry and efficiency of charge-to-spin conversion as well as the spin relaxation. These properties are essential for spin-orbitronic devices.

In this talk, I will focus on a special form of spin-momentum locking known as persistent spin texture (PST), where the spin orientation remains unidirectional and independent of momentum over extended regions of the Brillouin zone. Contrary to earlier assumptions that PST is rare, we show that it is a universal feature of all nonmagnetic crystals without inversion symmetry. While the general conditions for PST stem from symmetry principles, I will focus on its physical manifestations and implications for spin transport.

A particularly interesting case arises in chiral crystals, where PST evolves from an anisotropic radial spin texture. This configuration enhances both charge-to-spin conversion efficiency and spin lifetimes. I will illustrate this behavior using chiral tellurium as a case study, combining theoretical analysis with first-principles simulations to highlight its potential as a high-performance spin transport material.

Lastly, I will turn to ferroelectric spintronics, where electric polarization offers an additional degree of control over spins. I will present results showing ferroelectric switching of charge-to-spin conversion, unconventional configurations of the spin Hall effect, and persistent spin textures that can improve spin coherence. These effects are particularly relevant for memory and logic-in-memory applications, where non-volatile electric control, efficient spin-to-charge conversion, and long spin lifetimes are sought.

References:

1. B. Kilic, S. Alvarruiz, E. Barts, B. van Dijk, P. Barone, J. Sławińska, Universal symmetry-protected persistent spin textures in nonmagnetic solids, arXiv: 2409.13632 (2024),

2. E. Barts, K. Tenzin, J. Sławińska, Efficient spin accumulation carried by slow relaxons in chiral tellurium, Nature Communications 16, 4056 (2025)

3. H. Jafari, E. Barts, P. Przybysz, K. Tenzin, P. Dabrowski, P. Kowalczyk, J. Sławińska, Robust Zeeman-type spin splitting in sliding ferroelectrics, Physical Review Materials 8, 024005 (2024)

4. A. Roy, F.T. Cerasoli, A. Jayaraj, K. Tenzin, M. Buongiorno Nardelli, J. Sławińska, Long-range current-induced spin accumulation in chiral crystals, npj Computational Materials 8, 243 (2022)

5. J. Sławińska, F.T. Cerasoli, P. Gopal, M. Costa, S. Curtarolo, M. Buongiorno Nardelli, Ultrathin SnTe films as a route towards all-in-one spintronics devices, 2D Materials, 7 (2), 025026 (2020)

Acknowledgment

J.S. acknowledges the Rosalind Franklin Fellowship from the University of Groningen. We acknowledge the Dutch Research Council (NWO) - grants NWA.1418.22.014 and OCENW.M.22.063, and the European Research Council – ERC Consolidator Grant FERRERO. The calculations were carried out on the Dutch national e-infrastructure with the support of SURF Cooperative (EINF-8924) and on the Hábrók high-performance computing cluster of the University of Groningen.