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 aat9349Subject Categories
Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics
Other Physics Topics
Condensed Matter Physics
DOI
10.1126/sciadv.aat9349