Zollner, Klaus and Cummings, Aron W. and Roche, Stephan and Fabian, Jaroslav (2021) Graphene on two-dimensional hexagonal BN, AlN, and GaN: Electronic, spin-orbit, and spin relaxation properties. PHYSICAL REVIEW B, 103 (7): 075129. ISSN 2469-9950, 2469-9969
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We investigate the electronic band structure of graphene on a series of two-dimensional hexagonal nitride insulators hXN, X = B, A1, and Ga, with first-principles calculations. A symmetry-based model Hamiltonian is employed to extract orbital parameters and spin-orbit coupling (SOC) from the low-energy Dirac bands of the proximitized graphene. While commensurate hBN induces a staggered potential of about 10 meV into the Dirac band structure, less lattice-matched hA1N and hGaN disrupt the Dirac point much less, giving a staggered gap below 100 mu eV. Proximitized intrinsic SOC surprisingly does not increase much above the pristine graphene value of 12 mu eV; it stays in the window of 1-16 mu eV, depending strongly on stacking. However, Rashba SOC increases sharply when increasing the atomic number of the boron group, with calculated maximal values of 8, 15, and 65 mu eV for B-, Al-, and Ga-based nitrides, respectively. The individual Rashba couplings also depend strongly on stacking, vanishing in symmetrically sandwiched structures, and can be tuned by a transverse electric field. The extracted spin-orbit parameters were used as input for spin transport simulations based on Chebyshev expansion of the time-evolution of the spin expectation values, yielding interesting predictions for the electron spin relaxation. Spin lifetime magnitudes and anisotropies depend strongly on the specific (hXN)/graphene/hXN system, and they can be efficiently tuned by an applied external electric field as well as the carrier density in the graphene layer. A particularly interesting case for experiments is graphene/hGaN, in which the giant Rashba coupling is predicted to induce spin lifetimes of 1-10 ns, short enough to dominate over other mechanisms, and lead to the same spin relaxation anisotropy as that observed in conventional semiconductor heterostructures: 50%, meaning that out-of-plane spins relax twice as fast as in-plane spins.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | 500 Science > 530 Physics |
| Divisions: | Physics > Institute of Theroretical Physics > Chair Professor Richter > Group Jaroslav Fabian |
| Depositing User: | Dr. Gernot Deinzer |
| Date Deposited: | 18 Aug 2022 04:28 |
| Last Modified: | 18 Aug 2022 04:28 |
| URI: | https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/46660 |
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