Effect of Rashba type spin–orbit interaction on the electronic spectrum of graphene in the presence of a hydrogenic impurity

Abstract

The effect of Rashba spin–orbit interaction on the electronic spectrum of gapped graphene with a hydrogenic impurity in the presence of topological defects is analyzed analytically. Degenerate perturbation theory is used to investigate the dependence of electronic spectrum of gapped graphene on the strengths of impurity and Rashba spin–orbit coupling. The results show that, as the strength of Rashba spin–orbit coupling increases, pseudo-Zeeman splitting of energy levels induced by topological defects is enhanced. Therefore, it is possible to tune this pseudo-Zeeman splitting through the strength of Rashba spin–orbit coupling and of the strength of hydrogenic impurity.