Attività del Dipartimento

Colloqui di Fisica

Spin-orbit coupling (SOC)—a relativistic interaction which entangles a particle's motion with its quantum mechanical spin—is fundamental to a wide range of physics phenomena, spanning from the formation of topological insulators to the spin Hall effect of light. Recent years have seen remarkable progress in probing, enhancing and tailoring SOC effects in atomically thin materials and their interfaces. From the electrical control of spin-valley coupling in bilayer graphene [1] to reversible spin-charge conversion in graphene on transition metal dichalcogenides at room temperature [2], these discoveries challenge our previous notions of the possible behaviour of spin-orbit coupled electrons at interfaces. In this talk, I will discuss recent results of van der Waals heterostructures and new proposals for probing and exploiting the rich interplay of spin and lattice-pseudospin spin degrees of freedom triggered by SOC [3]. References: [1] “Anisotropic spin currents in graphene", Link identifier #identifier__194095-1https://physics.aps.org/articles/v11/s108 [2] “Optimal charge-to-spin conversion in graphene on transition-metal dichalcogenides", M. Offidani, M. Milletarí, R. Raimondi, and A. Ferreira, Phys. Rev. Lett. 119 (2017); “Proposal for unambiguous electrical detection of spin-charge conversion in lateral spin valves", S. A. Cavill, C. Huang, M. Offidani, Y.-H. Lin, M. A. Cazalilla and A. Ferreira, Phys. Rev. Lett. 124 (2020); “Gate-tunable reversible Rashba?Edelstein effect in a few-layer Graphene/2H-TaS2 heterostructure at room temperature“, L. Li, et al, ACS Nano 14 (2020) [3] “Skew-scattering-induced giant antidamping spin-orbit torques: Collinear and out-of-plane Edelstein effects at two-dimensional material/ferromagnet interfaces“, F. Sousa, G. Tatara and A. Ferreira, Phys. Rev. Res. 2 (2020); “Effect of proximity-induced spin-orbit coupling in graphene mesoscopic billiards", A. L. R. Barbosa, J. Ramos, and A. Ferreira, Phys. Rev. B 103 (2021)
org: MELONI Davide