The Rashba Scale: Emergence of Band Anti-crossing as a Design Principle for Materials with Large Rashba Coefficient

The spin-orbit-induced spin splitting of energy bands in low-symmetry compounds (the Rashba effect) has a long-standing relevance to spintronic applications and the fundamental understanding of symmetry breaking in solids, yet the knowledge of what controls its magnitude in different materials is difficult to anticipate. Indeed, rare discoveries of compounds with large Rashba coefficients are invariably greeted as pleasant surprises. We advance the understanding of the Rashba Scale using the inverse design approach by formulating theoretically the relevant design principle and then identifying compounds satisfying it. We show that the presence of energy band anti-crossing provides a causal design principle of compounds with large Rashba coefficients, leading to the identification via first-principles calculations of 34 rationally designed strong Rashba compounds. Since topological insulators must have band anti-crossing, this establishes an interesting cross-functionality of topological Rashba insulators that may provide a platform for the simultaneous control of spin splitting and spin polarization.