Graphene with structure-induced spin-orbit coupling: Spin-polarized states, spin zero modes, and quantum Hall effect

By E. Rashba. 2009

178 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Spin splitting of the energy spectrum of single-layer graphene on Au/Ni(111) substrate has been recently reported. I show that eigenstates of spin-orbit coupled graphene are polarized in-plane and are perpendicular to electron momentum $\mathbf{k}$; the magnitude of spin polarization $\mathbf{S}$ vanishes when $k\ensuremath{\rightarrow}0$. In a perpendicular magnetic field $\mathbf{B}$, $\mathbf{S}$ is parallel to $\mathbf{B}$, and two zero modes emerge in the Landau level spectrum. Singular $\mathbf{B}$ dependence of their magnetization suggests existence of a new variety of magnetic instability. They also manifest themselves in a new variety of unconventional quantum Hall effect.

Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Materials Chemistry

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e9fb56d7802300883e59fd6bf1f1ce454babc492