Abstract
Spin-inversion properties of an electron in nanoscale graphene sheets with a Rashba spin-orbit barrier is studied using transfer matrix method. It is found that for proper values of Rashba spin-orbit strength, perfect spin-inversion can occur in a wide range of electron incident angle near the normal incident. In this case, the graphene sheet with Rashba spin-orbit barrier can be considered as an electron spin-inverter. The efficiency of spin-inverter can increase up to a very high value by increasing the length of Rashba spin-orbit barrier. The effect of intrinsic spin-orbit interaction on electron spin inversion is then studied. It is shown that the efficiency of spin-inverter decreases slightly in the presence of intrinsic spin-orbit interaction. The present study can be used to design graphene-based spintronic devices.
Highlights
IntroductionA single layer of carbon atoms packed into a two-dimensional honeycomb network, has attracted enormous research interests in recent years because of its fascinating properties such as room temperature quantum Hall effect,[1,2,3] excellent electrical and thermal conductivities,[4,5,6,7,8,9,10] ballistic carrier transport,[11,12] superior mechanical strength and flexibility,[13,14] and high sensitivity to adsorbed chemicals.[15,16] In recent experimental studies, it has been shown that the electron spinrelaxation length in graphene is very long (of the order of 1μm at room temperature).[17,18,19,20] As a result, graphene is a promising candidate for spintronic devices
We have studied the spin-inversion properties of electron transmission in nanoscale graphene sheets with a Rashba spin-orbit barrier using transfer matrix method
It has been found that the electron complete spin-inversion can take place for proper values of barrier height or Rashba spin-orbit strength
Summary
A single layer of carbon atoms packed into a two-dimensional honeycomb network, has attracted enormous research interests in recent years because of its fascinating properties such as room temperature quantum Hall effect,[1,2,3] excellent electrical and thermal conductivities,[4,5,6,7,8,9,10] ballistic carrier transport,[11,12] superior mechanical strength and flexibility,[13,14] and high sensitivity to adsorbed chemicals.[15,16] In recent experimental studies, it has been shown that the electron spinrelaxation length in graphene is very long (of the order of 1μm at room temperature).[17,18,19,20] As a result, graphene is a promising candidate for spintronic devices. Spin-dependent electron transport in graphene has been studied vastly in recent years Intrinsic SOI, which is induced by carbon intra-atomic spin orbit coupling, can open a gap in graphene energy dispersion and it can convert graphene into a topological insulator with fractional spin Hall effect.[33] Intrinsic SOI is very small in a clean and flat graphene. The calculated value of intrinsic SOI is in the range of 0.0011-0.05 meV.[34,35] On the other hand, the value of Rashba SOI, which is induced by interaction of carbon atoms with the
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