Pseudospin-orbital coupling for pseudospintronic device in graphene

Abstract

We investigate the coupling of graphene pseudospin to orbital motion of the Dirac particles in mock relativistic and low energy limits in analogy to semiconductor spin-orbit coupling. We suggest harnessing these effects for nanoscale electronic applications under an artificial atomic structure, consisting of a graphene ring and a charged nano-sized dot, wherein a large pseudospin-orbital strength can be achieved by accelerating the Dirac particles around the ring, due to the small energy gap in graphene and the large radial electric field due to the charged quantum dot. We compare the pseudo SOC effects experienced by Dirac particles in graphene to the conventional Rashba SO effects experienced by electrons in semiconductors, effectively implementing spintronics in graphene. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.