By performing density functional theory (DFT) and Green's functions calculations, complemented by X-ray Photoemission Spectroscopy, we investigate the electronic structure of Fe/GeTe(111), a prototypical ferromagnetic/Rashba-ferroelectric interface. We reveal that such system exhibits several intriguing properties resulting from the complex interplay of exchange interaction, electric polarization and spin-orbit coupling. Despite a rather strong interfacial hybridization between Fe and GeTe bands, resulting in a complete suppression of the surface states of the latter, the bulk Rashba bands are hardly altered by the ferromagnetic overlayer. This could have a deep impact on spin dependent phenomena observed at this interface, such as spin-to-charge interconversion, which are likely to involve bulk rather than surface Rashba states.
@article{arxiv.1809.00805,
title = {Fe/GeTe(111) heterostructures as an avenue towards 'ferroelectric Rashba semiconductors'-based spintronics},
author = {Jagoda Slawinska and Domenico Di Sante and Sara Varotto and Christian Rinaldi and Riccardo Bertacco and Silvia Picozzi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1809.00805},
year = {2019}
}