The image at left shows the crystal structure of a MoTe2|PtS2 heterobilayer with isocharge plots from a model created at Rice University. When the materials are stacked together, mirror symmetry is broken and there is a charge transfer that creates an intrinsic electric field. This field is responsible for Rashba-type spin-splitting shown by the band structure at right, where the spin is perpendicular to momentum. Illustration by Sunny Gupta
The image at left shows the crystal structure of a MoTe2|PtS2 heterobilayer with isocharge plots from a model created at Rice University. When the materials are stacked together, mirror symmetry is broken and there is a charge transfer that creates an intrinsic electric field. This field is responsible for Rashba-type spin-splitting shown by the band structure at right, where the spin is perpendicular to momentum. Illustration by Sunny Gupta - Rice models help ID materials for advanced electronics, computer memories A new theory by Rice University scientists could boost the growing field of spintronics , devices that depend on the state of an electron as much as the brute electrical force required to push it. Materials theorist Boris Yakobson and graduate student Sunny Gupta at Rice's Brown School of Engineering describe the mechanism behind Rashba splitting , an effect seen in crystal compounds that can influence their electrons' "up" or "down" spin states, analogous to "on" or "off" in common transistors. "Spin" is a misnomer , since quantum physics constrains electrons to only two states. But that's useful, because it gives them the potential to become essential bits in next-generation quantum computers, as well as more powerful everyday electronic devices that use far less energy.
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