Germanium telluride (GeTe) is known as a ferrolectric
Rashba semiconductor with a number of interesting properties. The
crystals consist of nanodomains, whose ferrolectric polarization
can be switched by external electric fields. Because of the
so-called Rashba effect, this ferroelectricity can also be used to
switch electron spins within each domain. Germanium telluride is
therefore an interesting material for spintronic devices, which
allow data processing with significantly less energy
input.
