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Organic-to-Inorganic Structural Chirality Transfer and Impact on Rashba-Dresselhaus Spin-Splitting in 2D Perovskites

Sept. 17, 2020

The ability to break structural symmetry using chirality transfer from one structural unit to another provides a synthetic design paradigm for emergent properties, including spin-polarization for hybrid perovskite spintronics and related applications.

Scientific Achievement

We demonstrate a structural chirality transfer from chiral spacer cations to the perovskite layers leading to Rashba-Dresselhaus (RD) spin-splitting of electronic states in 2D hybrid perovskites.

Significance and Impact

This work demonstrates a pathway for rational control of chirality and spin-related properties of the inorganic framework for potential applications in hybrid perovskite spintronics.

Research Details

• Characterized the single-crystal structures of new 2D lead bromide perovskites (NPB) incorporating chiral R- and S-naphthyl-based cations (top panels).
• Elucidated the perovskite layer asymmetry and opposite handedness in R- and S-NPB in terms of disparate in-plane Pb-Br-Pb bond angles and the net helicity of in-plane Pb-Br-Pb bonds (middle panels shown in figure).
• Established through density-functional theory (DFT) calculations a substantial bulk RD spin splitting in perovskite-derived frontier conduction bands with opposite spin polarization in R- vs. S-NPB (bottom panels shown in figure).

DOI:10.1038/s41467-020-18485-7