Rashba spin-orbit interaction in graphene armchair nanoribbons

Abstract

We study graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) with armchair edges in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit interaction (RSOI). We impose the boundary conditions on the tight binding Hamiltonians for bulk graphene with RSOI by means of a sine transform and study in detail the influence of RSOI on the spectra and the spin polarization. We show that the spin polarization perpendicular to the GNR changes sign when reversing the momentum along the GNR if the bands are coupled by strong RSOI. Furthermore, we derive a linearized approximation to the RSOI Hamiltonian and find that only the neighboring modes of an energy band have to be taken into account in order to achieve a good approximation for the same band. Due to their experimental availability and various proposals for engineering appropriate RSOI, GNRs with armchair edges are a promising candidate for possible spintronics applications.

added journal reference, small updates, 9 pages, 8 figures

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Cited by in corpus (11)

• Colloquium: Spintronics in graphene and other two-dimensional materials
• Quantum transport in Rashba spin-orbit materials: A review
• Symmetries of quantum transport with Rashba spin-orbit: Graphene spintronics
• Spin-polarized currents in corrugated graphene nanoribbons
• Tunable reentrant Kondo effect in quantum dots coupled to metal-superconducting hybrid reservoirs
• All-electrical production of spin-polarized currents in carbon nanotubes: Rashba spin-orbit interaction
• Defect-enhanced Rashba spin-polarized currents in carbon nanotubes
• Reentrant Kondo effect in a quantum impurity coupled to a metal-semiconductor hybrid contact
• Chiral tunneling in single layer graphene with Rashba spin-orbit coupling: spin currents
• Impurity effects on Dirac modes in graphene armchair nanoribbons
• Chiral spin channels in curved graphene $pn$ junctions