title: Effects of Dephasing on Spin Lifetime in Ballistic Spin-Orbit Materials.
abstract: We theoretically investigate spin dynamics in spin-orbit-coupled materials. In the ballistic limit, the spin lifetime is dictated by dephasing that arises from energy broadening plus a nonuniform spin precession. For the case of clean graphene, we find a strong anisotropy with spin lifetimes that can be short even for modest energy scales, on the order of a few ns. These results offer deeper insight into the nature of spin dynamics in graphene, and are also applicable to the investigation of other systems where spin-orbit coupling plays an important role.
authors.affiliation: Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), CSIC and The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Campus UAB, Bellaterra, 08193 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Aron W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Cummings
authors.affiliation: Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), CSIC and The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Campus UAB, Bellaterra, 08193 Barcelona, Spain.|ICREA, Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, 08070 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Roche