Sagnac effect in a rotating ring with Dirac fermions

Abstract

The observation of the Sagnac effect for massive material particles offers a significant enhancement in sensitivity when compared to optical interferometers with equal area and angular rotation velocity. For this reason, there have been suggestions to employ solid-state interferometers that rely on semiconductors and graphene. We investigate the Sagnac effect in Dirac materials governed by the relativisticlike quasiparticle dispersion law and show that the fringe shift is still determined by the mass of a free electron. This confirms that graphene is indeed a promising material for creating solid-state Sagnac interferometers. Considering monolayer graphene with its linear dispersion law and comparing it with light provides a deeper understanding of the Sagnac effect.

6 pages; corrected version published in PRB L