title: Spin-helical Dirac states in graphene induced by polar-substrate surfaces with giant spin-orbit interaction: a new platform for spintronics.
abstract: Spintronics, or spin electronics, is aimed at efficient control and manipulation of spin degrees of freedom in electron systems. To comply with demands of nowaday spintronics, the studies of electron systems hosting giant spin-orbit-split electron states have become one of the most important problems providing us with a basis for desirable spintronics devices. In construction of such devices, it is also tempting to involve graphene, which has attracted great attention because of its unique and remarkable electronic properties and was recognized as a viable replacement for silicon in electronics. In this case, a challenging goal is to lift spin degeneracy of graphene Dirac states. Here, we propose a novel pathway to achieve this goal by means of coupling of graphene and polar-substrate surface states with giant Rashba-type spin-splitting. We theoretically demonstrate it by constructing the graphene@BiTeCl system, which appears to possess spin-helical graphene Dirac states caused by the strong interaction of Dirac and Rashba electrons. We anticipate that our findings will stimulate rapid growth in theoretical and experimental investigations of graphene Dirac states with real spin-momentum locking, which can revolutionize the graphene spintronics and become a reliable base for prospective spintronics applications.
authors.affiliation: 1] Institute of Strength Physics and Materials Science, 634021 Tomsk, Russia [2] Tomsk State University, 634050 Tomsk, Russia [3] Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), 20018 San Sebastián/Donostia, Basque Country, Spain.
authors.forename: S V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Eremeev
authors.affiliation: 1] Tomsk State University, 634050 Tomsk, Russia [2] Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), 20018 San Sebastián/Donostia, Basque Country, Spain.
authors.forename: I A
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Nechaev
authors.affiliation: 1] Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), 20018 San Sebastián/Donostia, Basque Country, Spain [2] Departamento de Física de Materiales UPV/EHU, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, UPV/EHU, Apdo. 1072, 20080 Sebastián/Donostia, Basque Country, Spain [3] Centro de Física de Materiales CFM - MPC, Centro Mixto CSIC-UPV/EHU, 20080 San Sebastián/Donostia, Basque Country, Spain.
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Echenique
authors.affiliation: 1] Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), 20018 San Sebastián/Donostia, Basque Country, Spain [2] Departamento de Física de Materiales UPV/EHU, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, UPV/EHU, Apdo. 1072, 20080 Sebastián/Donostia, Basque Country, Spain [3] Centro de Física de Materiales CFM - MPC, Centro Mixto CSIC-UPV/EHU, 20080 San Sebastián/Donostia, Basque Country, Spain.
authors.forename: E V
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: Chulkov