Tailoring emergent spin phenomena in Dirac material heterostructures
Journal article, 2018

Dirac materials such as graphene and topological insulators (TIs) are known to have unique electronic and spintronic properties. We combine graphene with TIs in van der Waals heterostructures to demonstrate the emergence of a strong proximity-induced spin-orbit coupling in graphene. By performing spin transport and precession measurements supported by ab initio simulations, we discover a strong tunability and suppression of the spin signal and spin lifetime due to the hybridization of graphene and TI electronic bands. The enhanced spin-orbit coupling strength is estimated to be nearly an order of magnitude higher than in pristine graphene. These findings in graphene-TI heterostructures could open interesting opportunities for exploring exotic physical phenomena and new device functionalities governed by topological proximity effects.

Author

Dmitrii Khokhriakov

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Quantum Device Physics

Aron W. Cummings

Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB)

Kenan Song

Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB)

Marc Vila

Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB)

Bogdan Karpiak

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Quantum Device Physics

André Dankert

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Quantum Device Physics

Stephan Roche

Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (UAB)

Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies

Saroj Prasad Dash

Graphene Centre at Chalmers

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Quantum Device Physics

Science advances

2375-2548 (eISSN)

Vol. 4 9 aat9349

Subject Categories

Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics

Other Physics Topics

Condensed Matter Physics

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.aat9349

More information

Latest update

4/1/2021 1