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Tunable Giant Spin Hall Conductivities in a Strong Spin-Orbit Semimetal:Bi1−xSbx
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Tunable Giant Spin Hall Conductivities in a Strong Spin-Orbit Semimetal:Bi1−xSbx

Cüneyt Şahin and Michael E Flatté
Physical review letters, Vol.114(10), 107201
03/2015
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.107201
PMID: 25815962
url
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.107201View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

Intrinsic spin Hall conductivities are calculated for strong spin-orbit Bi1−xSbx semimetals, from the Kubo formula and using Berry curvatures evaluated throughout the Brillouin zone from a tight-binding Hamiltonian. Nearly crossing bands with strong spin-orbit interaction generate giant spin Hall conductivities in these materials, ranging from 474 (ℏ/e)(Ω  cm)−1 for bismuth to 96 (ℏ/e)(Ω  cm)−1 for antimony; the value for bismuth is more than twice that of platinum. The large spin Hall conductivities persist for alloy compositions corresponding to a three-dimensional topological insulator state, such as Bi0.83Sb0.17. The spin Hall conductivity could be changed by a factor of 5 for doped Bi, or for Bi0.83Sb0.17, by changing the chemical potential by 0.5 eV, suggesting the potential for doping or voltage tuned spin Hall current.

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