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Naimer, Thomas ; Faria Junior, Paulo E. ; Zollner, Klaus ; Fabian, Jaroslav

Radial Rashba spin-orbit fields in commensurate twisted transition metal dichalcogenide bilayers

Naimer, Thomas , Faria Junior, Paulo E. , Zollner, Klaus and Fabian, Jaroslav (2026) Radial Rashba spin-orbit fields in commensurate twisted transition metal dichalcogenide bilayers. Physical Review B 113, 045417.

Date of publication of this fulltext: 19 Jan 2026 05:34
Article
DOI to cite this document: 10.5283/epub.78468

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Abstract

In commensurate twisted homobilayers, purely radial Rashba spin-orbit fields can emerge. We employ first-principles calculations to investigate the band structures and the spin-orbit fields close to the high-symmetry points K and Γ of several commensurate twisted transition-metal dichalcogenide homobilayers: WSe₂, NbSe₂, and WTe₂. The observed in-plane spin textures are mostly radial, and the ...

In commensurate twisted homobilayers, purely radial Rashba spin-orbit fields can emerge. We employ first-principles calculations to investigate the band structures and the spin-orbit fields close to the high-symmetry points K and Γ of several commensurate twisted transition-metal dichalcogenide homobilayers: WSe₂, NbSe₂, and WTe₂. The observed in-plane spin textures are mostly radial, and the main features are successfully reproduced using a model Hamiltonian based on two effective-mass models, including spin-orbit coupling, and a general (spin-conserving) interlayer coupling. Extracting the model Hamiltonian parameters through fitting of several twisted supercells, we find a twist angle dependency of the magnitude of the radial Rashba field, which is symmetric not only around the untwisted cases (Θ = 0° and Θ = 60°), but also around Θ = 30°. Furthermore, we observe that the interlayer coupling between the K (or K′ ) points of the two layers decreases with the increase of the size of the commensurate supercells. Hence, peaks of high interlayer coupling can occur only for twist angles, where small commensurate supercells are possible. Exploring different lateral displacements between the layers, we confirm that the relevant symmetry protecting the radial Rashba is an in-plane 180° rotation axis. We additionally investigate the effects of atomic relaxation and modulation of the interlayer distance. Our calculations on WTe₂ bilayers show that their lack of C₃ symmetry results in spin textures that are neither radial nor tangential. Our results offer fundamental microscopic insights that are particularly relevant to engineering spin-charge conversion schemes based on twisted layered materials.



Involved Institutions


Details

Item typeArticle
Journal or Publication TitlePhysical Review B
Publisher:American Physical Society (APS)
Volume:113
Page Range:045417
Date15 January 2026
InstitutionsPhysics > Institute of Theroretical Physics > Chair Professor Richter > Group Jaroslav Fabian
Projects
Funded by: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (314695032)
Identification Number
ValueType
10.1103/jyfh-q2r7DOI
Keywordstransition-metal dichalcogenides, twistronics, spin-orbit coupling
Dewey Decimal Classification500 Science > 530 Physics
StatusPublished
RefereedYes, this version has been refereed
Created at the University of RegensburgPartially
URN of the UB Regensburgurn:nbn:de:bvb:355-epub-784688
Item ID78468

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