Emergent Rashba spin-orbit coupling in bulk gold with buried network of nanoscale interfaces

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Main Authors: Kumbhakar, Shreya, Debnath, Banashree, Maji, Tuhin Kumar, Tongbram, Binita, Mandal, Shinjan, Sai, T. Phanindra, Ramakrishnan, T. V., Jain, Manish, Krishnamurthy, H. R., Pandey, Anshu, Ghosh, Arindam
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Kumbhakar, Shreya
Debnath, Banashree
Maji, Tuhin Kumar
Tongbram, Binita
Mandal, Shinjan
Sai, T. Phanindra
Ramakrishnan, T. V.
Jain, Manish
Krishnamurthy, H. R.
Pandey, Anshu
Ghosh, Arindam
author_facet Kumbhakar, Shreya
Debnath, Banashree
Maji, Tuhin Kumar
Tongbram, Binita
Mandal, Shinjan
Sai, T. Phanindra
Ramakrishnan, T. V.
Jain, Manish
Krishnamurthy, H. R.
Pandey, Anshu
Ghosh, Arindam
contents The Rashba effect, which plays a crucial role in fundamental materials physics and potential spintronics applications, has been engineered in diverse systems, including semiconductor quantum wells, oxide heterostructures, metallic surfaces, topological insulators, ferroelectrics, etc. However, generating it in systems that preserve bulk inversion symmetry (BIS), for example, in bulk metals, has not been possible so far. We demonstrate a unique strategy to introduce and tune Rashba spin-orbit interaction (SOI) to unprecedented magnitudes in inversion-symmetric solids, by incorporating ultra-small silver nanoparticles in bulk gold. The near-identical lattice constants of Ag and Au allowed dense packing of the Ag/Au hetero-interfaces without compromising the global BIS. By varying the density of embedded nanoparticles, we generate Rashba SOI in a bulk metal with a coupling strength of ~15 meV.Angstrom, higher than any known system preserving BIS globally, and up to ~20 times increase in the spin-orbit scattering rate. We argue that the combined effect of charge-transfer at the interfaces and polaronic localization enhances the SOI.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_03620
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Emergent Rashba spin-orbit coupling in bulk gold with buried network of nanoscale interfaces
Kumbhakar, Shreya
Debnath, Banashree
Maji, Tuhin Kumar
Tongbram, Binita
Mandal, Shinjan
Sai, T. Phanindra
Ramakrishnan, T. V.
Jain, Manish
Krishnamurthy, H. R.
Pandey, Anshu
Ghosh, Arindam
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
The Rashba effect, which plays a crucial role in fundamental materials physics and potential spintronics applications, has been engineered in diverse systems, including semiconductor quantum wells, oxide heterostructures, metallic surfaces, topological insulators, ferroelectrics, etc. However, generating it in systems that preserve bulk inversion symmetry (BIS), for example, in bulk metals, has not been possible so far. We demonstrate a unique strategy to introduce and tune Rashba spin-orbit interaction (SOI) to unprecedented magnitudes in inversion-symmetric solids, by incorporating ultra-small silver nanoparticles in bulk gold. The near-identical lattice constants of Ag and Au allowed dense packing of the Ag/Au hetero-interfaces without compromising the global BIS. By varying the density of embedded nanoparticles, we generate Rashba SOI in a bulk metal with a coupling strength of ~15 meV.Angstrom, higher than any known system preserving BIS globally, and up to ~20 times increase in the spin-orbit scattering rate. We argue that the combined effect of charge-transfer at the interfaces and polaronic localization enhances the SOI.
title Emergent Rashba spin-orbit coupling in bulk gold with buried network of nanoscale interfaces
topic Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.03620