Magnetic generation of normal pseudo-spin polarization in disordered graphene

Abstract

Abstract Spin to pseudo-spin conversion by which the non-equilibrium normal sublattice pseudo-spin polarization could be achieved by magnetic field has been proposed in graphene. Calculations have been performed within the Kubo approach for both pure and disordered graphene including vertex corrections of impurities. Results indicate that the normal magnetic field $$B_z$$ B z produces pseudo-spin polarization in graphene regardless of whether the contribution of vertex corrections has been taken into account or not. This is because of non-vanishing correlation between the $$\sigma _z$$ σ z and $$\tau _z$$ τ z provided by the co-existence of extrinsic Rashba and intrinsic spin–orbit interactions which combines normal spin and pseudo-spin. For the case of pure graphene, valley-symmetric spin to pseudo-spin response function is obtained. Meanwhile, by taking into account the vertex corrections of impurities the obtained response function is weakened by several orders of magnitude with non-identical contributions of different valleys. This valley-asymmetry originates from the inversion symmetry breaking generated by the scattering matrix. Finally, spin to pseudo-spin conversion in graphene could be realized as a practical technique for both generation and manipulation of normal sublattice pseudo-spin polarization by an accessible magnetic field in a easy way. This novel proposed effect not only offers the opportunity to selective manipulation of carrier densities on different sublattice but also could be employed in data transfer technology. The normal pseudo-spin polarization which manifests it self as electron population imbalance of different sublattices can be detected by optical spectroscopy measurements.