Title: Rashba spin-orbit interaction enhanced by graphene in-plane deformations
Author(s):

	B. Berche (Groupe de Physique Statistique, Institut Jean Lamour, Université de Lorraine, 54506 Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, France; Centro de Física, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas, 21827, Caracas, 1020 A, Venezuela) ,
	F. Mireles (Centro de Nanociencias y Nanotecnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Apdo. Postal 14, 22800 Ensenada B.C., México) ,
	E. Medina (Groupe de Physique Statistique, Institut Jean Lamour, Université de Lorraine, 54506 Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, France; Centro de Física, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas, 21827, Caracas, 1020 A, Venezuela; Yachay Tech, School of Physical Sciences & Nanotechnology, 100119-Urcuquí, Ecuador)

Graphene consists in a single-layer carbon crystal where 2p_z electrons display a linear dispersion relation in the vicinity of the Fermi level, conveniently described by a massless Dirac equation in 2+1 spacetime. Spin-orbit effects open a gap in the band structure and offer perspectives for the manipulation of the conducting electrons spin. Ways to manipulate spin-orbit couplings in graphene have been generally assessed by proximity effects to metals that do not compromise the mobility of the unperturbed system and are likely to induce strain in the graphene layer. In this work we explore the U(1)×SU(2) gauge fields that result from the uniform stretching of a graphene sheet under a perpendicular electric field. Considering such deformations is particularly relevant due to the counter-intuitive enhancement of the Rashba coupling between 30-50% for small bond deformations well known from tight-binding and DFT calculations. We report the accesible changes that can be operated in the band structure in the vicinity of the K points as a function of the deformation strength and direction.

Key words: graphene, spin-current, spin-orbit interaction
PACS: 72.80.Vp, 75.70.Tj, 11.15.-q

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