Gate-voltage switching of nonreciprocal transport in oxide-based Rashba interfaces

The linear magnetoelectric effect (ME) is the phenomenon by which an electric field produces a magnetization. Its observation requires both time-reversal and space-inversion symmetries to be broken, as in multiferroics. While the ME effect has only been studied in insulating materials, it can actually exist in noncentrosymmetric conductors such as two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) with Rashba spin-orbit coupling. It is then coined the Edelstein effect (EE), by which a bias voltage-generating a charge current-produces a transverse spin density, i.e., a magnetization. Interestingly, 2D systems are sensitive to voltage gating, which provides an extra handle to control the EE. Here, we show that the sign of the EE in a SrTiO3 2DEG can be controlled by a gate voltage. We propose various logic devices harnessing the dual control of the spin density by current and gate voltages and discuss the potential of our findings for gate-tunable nonreciprocal electronics.