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arXiv · 0902.3244

Impurity induced spin-orbit coupling in graphene

A. H. Castro Neto·F. Guinea
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Abstract

We study the effect of impurities in inducing spin-orbit coupling in graphene. We show that the sp3 distortion induced by an impurity can lead to a large increase in the spin-orbit coupling with a value comparable to the one found in diamond and other zinc-blende semiconductors. The spin-flip scattering produced by the impurity leads to spin scattering lengths of the order found in recent experiments. Our results indicate that the spin-orbit coupling can be controlled via the impurity coverage.

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A. H. Castro Neto, F. Guinea. 2009-02-19. Impurity induced spin-orbit coupling in graphene. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.103.026804

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