Pressure variation of Rashba spin splitting toward topological transition in the polar semiconductor BiTeI

Abstract

BiTeI is a polar semiconductor with gigantic Rashba spin-split bands in bulk. We have investigated the effect of pressure on the electronic structure of this material via magnetotransport. Periods of Shubunikov–de Haas (SdH) oscillations originating from the spin-split outer Fermi surface and inner Fermi surface show disparate responses to pressure, while the carrier number derived from the Hall effect is unchanged with pressure. The associated parameters which characterize the spin-split band structure are strongly dependent on pressure, reflecting the pressure-induced band deformation. We find the SdH oscillations and transport response are consistent with the theoretically proposed pressure-induced band deformation leading to a topological phase transition. Our analysis suggests the critical pressure for the quantum phase transition near P[subscript c] = 3.5 GPa.