Trigonal warping induced terraced spin texture and nearly perfect spin polarization in graphene with Rashba effect

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that trigonal warping combined with Rashba spin-orbit coupling in graphene creates terraced spin textures and achieves nearly perfect electric control of spin polarization, advancing low-dimensional spintronics.

Contribution

It reveals the combined effects of trigonal warping and Rashba SOC in graphene, showing their role in inducing terraced spin textures and high spin polarization.

Findings

Trigonal warping causes terraced spin textures in graphene.

Significant spin polarization can be electrically controlled.

The combined effects are crucial for low-dimensional spintronics.

Abstract

Electrical tunability of spin polarization has been a focus in spintronics. Here, we report that the trigonal warping (TW) effect, together with spin-orbit coupling (SOC), can lead to two distinct magnetoelectric effects in low-dimensional systems. Taking graphene with Rashba SOC as example, we study the electronic properties and spin-resolved scattering of system. It is found that the TW effect gives rise to a terraced spin texture in low-energy bands and can render significant spin polarization in the scattering, both resulting in an efficient electric control of spin polarization. Our work unveils not only SOC but also the TW effect is important for low-dimensional spintronics.