Spin-Polarized Band Structure at MoTe2/Bi2Se3 Interface Designed from First Principles

The aim of spintronics is to utilize the spin degree of freedom of electrons to realize advanced information storage and logic devices. Toward engineering functional properties for spintronics applications, we theoretically design a transition-metal-dichalcogenides/topological-insulator heterostructure which offers a number of different spin degrees of freedom originating from the topological surface state and the spin-valley physics. We show that MoTe2 and Bi2Se3 lattices match well and in-plane strain provides a handle to manipulate the spin-polarized band alignment near the Fermi energy. The calculated electronic structure manifests the hybrid spin texture having both in-plane and out-of-plane spin directions at the interface.