Focus on the Rashba effect

208Citations
Citations of this article
358Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

This article is free to access.

Abstract

The Rashba effect, discovered in 1959, continues to supply fertile ground for fundamental research and applications. It provided the basis for the proposal of the spin transistor by Datta and Das in 1990, which has largely inspired the broad and dynamic field of spintronics. More recent developments include new materials for the Rashba effect such as metal surfaces, interfaces and bulk materials. It has also given rise to new phenomena such as spin currents and the spin Hall effect, including its quantized version, which has led to the very active field of topological insulators. The Rashba effect plays a crucial role in yet more exotic fields of physics such as the search for Majorana fermions at semiconductor-superconductor interfaces and the interaction of ultracold atomic Bose and Fermi gases. Advances in our understanding of Rashba-type spin-orbit couplings, both qualitatively and quantitatively, can be obtained in many different ways. This focus issue brings together the wide range of research activities on Rashba physics to further promote the development of our physical pictures and concepts in this field. The present Editorial gives a brief account on the history of the Rashba effect including material that was previously not easily accessible before summarizing the key results of the present focus issue as a guidance to the reader.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Bihlmayer, G., Rader, O., & Winkler, R. (2015, May 27). Focus on the Rashba effect. New Journal of Physics. Institute of Physics Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/17/5/050202

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free