title: Impact of electron-impurity scattering on the spin relaxation time in graphene: a first-principles study.
abstract: The effect of electron-impurity scattering on momentum and spin relaxation times in graphene is studied by means of relativistic ab initio calculations. Assuming carbon and silicon adatoms as natural impurities in graphene, we are able to simulate fast spin relaxation observed experimentally. We investigate the dependence of the relaxation times on the impurity position and demonstrate that C or Si adatoms act as real-space spin hot spots inducing spin-flip rates about 5 orders of magnitude larger than those of in-plane impurities. This fact confirms the hypothesis that the adatom-induced spin-orbit coupling leads to fast spin relaxation in graphene.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, Weinberg 2, 06120 Halle, Germany and Institute of Physics, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, 06099 Halle, Germany.
authors.forename: Dmitry V
authors.initials: DV
authors.lastname: Fedorov
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, Weinberg 2, 06120 Halle, Germany and H. H. Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TL, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gradhand
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, Weinberg 2, 06120 Halle, Germany.
authors.forename: Sergey
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ostanin
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physics, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, 06099 Halle, Germany.
authors.forename: Igor V
authors.initials: IV
authors.lastname: Maznichenko
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, Weinberg 2, 06120 Halle, Germany and Institute of Physics, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, 06099 Halle, Germany.
authors.forename: Arthur
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ernst
authors.affiliation: Institute of Theoretical Physics, University Regensburg, 93040 Regensburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Jaroslav
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fabian
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, Weinberg 2, 06120 Halle, Germany and Institute of Physics, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, 06099 Halle, Germany.
authors.forename: Ingrid
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mertig