Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T00:02:51.487Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Electron spin flip scattering in graphene due to substrate impurities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2013

Aditi Goswami
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA
Yue Liu
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA
Feilong Liu
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA
P. Paul Ruden
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
Darryl L. Smith
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA
Get access

Abstract

Graphene is a promising material for electronic and spintronic applications due to its high carrier mobility and low intrinsic spin-orbit interaction. However, extrinsic effects may easily dominate intrinsic scattering mechanisms. The scattering mechanisms investigated here are associated non-magnetic, charged impurities in the substrate (e.g. SiO2) beneath the graphene layer. Such impurities cause an electric field that extends through the graphene and has a non-vanishing perpendicular component. Consequently, the impurity, in addition to the conventional elastic, spin-conserving scattering can give rise to spin-flip processes. The latter is a consequence of a spatially varying Rashba spin-orbit interaction caused by the electric field of the impurity in the substrate. Scattering cross-sections are calculated and, for assumed impurity distributions, relaxation times are estimated.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Castro-Neto, A.H., Guinea, F., Peres, N.M.R. Novoselov, K.S., and Geim, A.K., Rev. Mod. Phys. 81, 109 (2009).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avouris, Ph., Nano Lett. 10, 4285 (2010).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cho, S., Chen, Y., and Fuhrer, M.S., Appl. Phys. Lett. 91, 123105 (2007).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jozsa, C., Popinciuc, M., Tombros, N.. Jonkman, H.T., and van Wees, B.J., Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 236603 (2008).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huertas-Hernando, D., Guinea, F., and Brataas, A., Phys. Rev. B 74, 155426 (2006).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Min, H., Hill, J.E., Sinitsyn, N.A., Sahu, B.R., Kleinman, L., MacDonald, A.H., Phys. Rev. B 74, 165310 (2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DiVincenzo, D. P., Mele, E. J., Phys. Rev. B, 29, 4, 1685 (1984)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Novikov, D. S., Phys. Rev. B 76, 245435 (2007).CrossRefGoogle Scholar