Spin orbit interaction in nanotubes

Abstract

In recent years, silicene, germanene, and stanene have received considerable attention due to their possibilities to show a spin Hall effect. Nanoribbons made of these materials are expected to have topologically protected states. In this work, we study the electronic properties of nanotubes made of Si, Ge, Sn, and functionalized Sn. The main difference between these materials and graphene is the relevance of spin-orbit interaction. The lack of edge states in a seamless tube eliminates the possibility to find a topological edge state. The spin-orbit interaction breaks the degeneracy of Dirac's cones and eliminates the chances of finding a metal nanotube. As a consequence, this transforms all nanotubes with spin-orbit interaction in trivial band insulators. We focus our attention on two features. First, we study the energy band gap as a function of the diameter of the nanotubes. Then, we concentrate on controlling the band gap of a nanotube by applying an external radial electric field.

arXiv comment8 pages with 8 figures

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