Spin-Orbit driven Phenomena and their Interplay with External Factors. Modeling Cross Coupling Interactions in Ferroelectric Rashba Systems and Topological Insulators

Advanced materials are making their way into every aspect of modern life and society, from electronics to communications, from transport to energy. Within this framework, approaches providing a quantitative non empirical modeling of materials, based on the laws of physics, are experiencing a
growth in almost all areas of material science. Supported by this spirit, this talk tackles the area of modeling cross coupling interactions in complex systems by using and combining different numerical and theoretical methods. In fact, complex systems always show entangled interactions, very often
acting on comparable energy scales, so that the description of one interaction can't prescind from the description of the others and of their combined effects. I will focus on spin-orbit induced phenomena, in particular on Rashba effect and topological properties of matter, and I will aim at describing the
interplay of such cross coupling interaction with ferroelectricity, disorder and external factors, as for example strain and pressure, in novel technological materials such as GeTe [1], SnTe [2], lead-chalcogenides [3], halides perovskite [4], 3D Dirac semimetals [5] and 2D honeycomb binary
compounds [6]. Such complex systems, based on cross-couplings, are often multifunctional, since they can be used by exploiting more than one of their functional properties.

References

[1] Advanced Materials, 25 509 (2013)
[2] Phys. Rev. B, 90 161108(R) (2014)
[3] Phys. Rev. B, 88 045207 (2013) ; Phys. Status Solid RRL, 7 1102 (2013)
[4] Nat. Commun., 5 5900 (2014)
[5] Phys. Rev. Lett., 113 256403 (2014)
[6] Phys. Rev. B, 91 161401(R) (2015)