Interface-induced effects in Quantum Materials: Rashba/ferroeletric interfaces

Abstract

The candidate currently has a postdoctoral scholarship from FAPESP. Upon request of this scholarship, we have explicitly mentioned the intention for him to spend one year abroad developing the project with our international collaborator, Prof. Alex Zunger. This project is based on the idea that quantum effects emerging by virtue of the interface itself can be directly used to control the spin orientation. Specifically, instead of searching for suitable interfaces to decrease the quantum tunneling phenomena in the current electronic device models, we propose to explore the manipulation of interface as a mechanism to control the spin-polarization i) inducing giant Rashba spin-splitting either by doping ferroelectric compounds with heavy atoms or through the surface/interfaces itself and ii) changing the polarization of a ferroelectric material to switch the in-plane spin-texture in Rashba-semiconductor. The main objective of this project, to understand and design heterogeneous interfaces that enable quantum control through manipulation of the interfacial bonds, will be addressed using density functional theory, high-throughput calculations and machine learning analytic tools.