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Giant Rashba effect at the topological surface of PrGe revealing antiferromagnetic spintronics

Rashba spin-orbit splitting in the magnetic materials opens up a new perspective in the field of spintronics. Here, we report a giant Rashba-type spin-orbit effect on PrGe [010] surface in the paramagnetic phase with Rashba coefficient α_R=5 eVÅ. Significant changes in the electronic band structure has been observed across the phase transitions from paramagnetic to antiferromagnetic (44 K) and from antiferromagnetic to the ferromagnetic ground state (41.5 K). We find that Pr 4f states in PrGe is strongly hybridized with the Pr 5d and Ge 4s-4p states near the Fermi level. The behavior of Rashba effect is found to be different in the k_x and the k_y directions showing electron-like and the hole-like bands, respectively. The possible origin of Rashba effect in the paramagnetic phase is related to the anti-parallel spin polarization present in this system. First-principles density functional calculations of Pr terminated surface with the anti-parallel spins shows a fair agreement with the experimental results. We find that the anti-parallel spins are strongly coupled to the lattice such that the PrGe system behaves like weak ferromagnetic system. Analysis of the energy dispersion curves at different magnetic phases showed that there is a competition between the Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction and the exchange interaction which gives rise to the magnetic ordering in PrGe. Supporting evidences of the presence of Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya interaction are observed as anisotropic magnetoresistance with respect to field direction and first-order type hysteresis in the X-ray diffraction measurements. A giant negative magnetoresistance of 43% in the antiferromagnetic phase and tunable Rashba parameter with temperature across the magnetic transitions makes this material a suitable candidate for technological application in the antiferromagnetic spintronic devices.