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Spintronics and pseudospintronics in graphene and topological insulators

Nature Materials volume 11, pages 409–416 (2012)Cite this article

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Abstract

The two-dimensional electron systems in graphene and in topological insulators are described by massless Dirac equations. Although the two systems have similar Hamiltonians, they are polar opposites in terms of spin–orbit coupling strength. We briefly review the status of efforts to achieve long spin-relaxation times in graphene with its weak spin–orbit coupling, and to achieve large current-induced spin polarizations in topological-insulator surface states that have strong spin–orbit coupling. We also comment on differences between the magnetic responses and dilute-moment coupling properties of the two systems, and on the pseudospin analogue of giant magnetoresistance in bilayer graphene.

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Figure 1: Overview of spintronics.
Figure 2: Dirac cones in graphene and in topological insulators.
Figure 3: Hanle effect measurements of room-temperature spin-relaxation times in a variety of bilayer graphene samples41.
Figure 4: Phase diagram for magnetic adatom magnetism mediated by topological-insulator surface states.
Figure 5: Comparison between a regular ferromagnetic metal spin-valve device and a bilayer graphene pseudospin-valve device.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge financial support from the US Army Research Office (ARO) under award number MURI W911NF-08-1-0364. We thank D. Abanin, I. Grigorieva, J. Sinova, A. Veligura and B. van Wees for discussions.

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  1. Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, 78712-1081, Texas, USA

    Dmytro Pesin & Allan H. MacDonald

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Correspondence to Allan H. MacDonald.

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Pesin, D., MacDonald, A. Spintronics and pseudospintronics in graphene and topological insulators. Nature Mater 11, 409–416 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3305

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