2006/06/30 by Hongki Min, J. E. Hill, Jason E. Hill +6 · 12 citations
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Graphene research and applications #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Topological Materials and Phenomena #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.74.165310
published as Phys. Rev. B 74, 165310 (2006) · 5 pages, 2 figures; typos corrected, references updated
openalex publication_date 2006/10/09 · arxiv created 2006/10/20 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Starting from a microscopic tight-binding model and using second-order perturbation theory, we derive explicit expressions for the intrinsic and Rashba spin-orbit interaction induced gaps in the Dirac-like low-energy band structure of an isolated graphene sheet. The Rashba interaction parameter is first order in the atomic carbon spin-orbit coupling strength \ensuremathξ and first order in the external electric field E perpendicular to the graphene plane, whereas the intrinsic spin-orbit interaction which survives at E=0 is second order in \ensuremathξ. The spin-orbit terms in the low-energy effective Hamiltonian have the form proposed recently by Kane and Mele. Ab initio electronic structure calculations were performed as a partial check on the validity of the tight-binding model.