Highly Efficient Electric-Field Control of Giant Rashba Spin–Orbit Coupling in Lattice-Matched InSb/CdTe Heterostructures

Spin–orbit coupling (SOC), the relativistic effect describing the interaction between the orbital and spin degrees of freedom, provides an effective way to tailor the spin/magnetic orders using electrical means. Here, we report the manipulation of the spin–orbit interaction in the lattice-matched InSb/CdTe heterostructures. Owing to the energy band bending at the heterointerface, the strong Rashba effect is introduced to drive the spin precession where pronounced weak antilocalization cusps are observed up to 100 K. With effective quantum confinement and suppressed bulk conduction, the SOC strength is found to be enhanced by 75% in the ultrathin InSb/CdTe film. Most importantly, we realize the electric-field control of the interfacial Rashba effect using a field-effect transistor structure and demonstrate the gate-tuning capability which is 1–2 orders of magnitude higher than other materials. The adoption of the InSb/CdTe integration strategy may set up a general framework for the design of strongly spin–orbit coupled systems that are essential for CMOS-compatible low-power spintronics.