title: Impurity-induced spin-orbit coupling in graphene.
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.
authors: Department of Physics, Boston University, 590 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston Massachusetts 02215, USA.
authors: A H
authors: AH
authors: Castro Neto
authors: F
authors: F
authors: Guinea