Spin-orbit coupling assisted by flexural phonons in graphene

Ochoa, H. and Neto, A. H. Castro and Falko, Vladimir and Guinea, F. (2012) Spin-orbit coupling assisted by flexural phonons in graphene. Physical review B, 86 (24): 245411. ISSN 1098-0121

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Abstract

We analyze the couplings between spins and phonons in graphene. We present a complete analysis of the possible couplings between spins and flexural, out-of-plane, vibrations. From tight-binding models, we obtain analytical and numerical estimates of their strength. We show that dynamical effects, induced by quantum and thermal fluctuations, significantly enhance the spin-orbit gap.