Proximity-induced spin–orbit coupling in graphene has led to the observation of intriguing phenomena like time-reversal invariant $${{\mathbb{Z}}}_{2}$$ Z 2 topological phase and spin-orbital filtering effects. An understanding of the effect of spin–orbit coupling on the band structure of graphene is essential if these exciting observations are to be transformed into real-world applications. In this research article, we report the experimental determination of the band structure of single-layer graphene (SLG) in the presence of strong proximity-induced spin–orbit coupling. We achieve this in high-mobility hexagonal boron nitride (hBN)-encapsulated SLG/WSe2 heterostructures through measurements of quantum oscillations. We observe clear spin-splitting of the graphene bands along with a substantial increase in the Fermi velocity. Using a theoretical model with realistic parameters to fit our experimental data, we uncover evidence of a band gap opening and band inversion in the SLG. Further, we establish that the deviation of the low-energy band structure from pristine SLG is determined primarily by the valley-Zeeman SOC and Rashba SOC, with the Kane–Mele SOC being inconsequential. Despite robust theoretical predictions and observations of band-splitting, a quantitative measure of the spin-splitting of the valence and the conduction bands and the consequent low-energy dispersion relation in SLG was missing—our combined experimental and theoretical study fills this lacuna.

Motivated by the spin–momentum locking of electrons at the boundaries of certain topological insulators, we study a one-dimensional system of spin–orbit coupled massless Dirac electrons with s-wave superconducting pairing. As a result of the spin–orbit coupling, our model has only two kinds of linearly dispersing modes, and we take these to be right-moving spin-up and left-moving spin-down. Both lattice and continuum models are studied. In the lattice model, we find that a single Majorana zero energy mode appears at each end of a finite system provided that the s-wave pairing has an extended form, with the nearest-neighbor pairing being larger than the on-site pairing. We confirm this both numerically and analytically by calculating the winding number. We find that the continuum model also has zero energy end modes. Next we study a lattice version of a model with both Schrödinger and Dirac-like terms and find that the model hosts a topological transition between topologically trivial and non-trivial phases depending on the relative strength of the Schrödinger and Dirac terms. We then study a continuum system consisting of two s-wave superconductors with different phases of the pairing, with a δ-function potential barrier lying at the junction of the two superconductors. Remarkably, we find that the system has a single Andreev bound state (ABS) which is localized at the junction. When the pairing phase difference crosses a multiple of 2π, an ABS touches the top of the superconducting gap and disappears, and a different state appears from the bottom of the gap. We also study the AC Josephson effect in such a junction with a voltage bias that has both a constant V 0 and a term which oscillates with a frequency ω. We find that, in contrast to standard Josephson junctions, Shapiro plateaus appear when the Josephson frequency ω J = 2eV 0/ℏ is a rational fraction of ω. We discuss experiments which can realize such junctions.

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We study the effects of a periodically varying electric field on the Hubbard model at half filling on a triangular lattice. The electric field is incorporated through the phase of the nearest-neighbor hopping amplitude via the Peierls prescription. When the on-site interaction U is much larger than the hopping, the effective Hamiltonian H eff describing the spin sector can be found using a Floquet perturbation theory. To third order in the hopping, H eff is found to have the form of a Heisenberg antiferromagnet with three different nearest-neighbor couplings (J α , J β , J γ ) on bonds lying along the different directions. Remarkably, when the periodic driving does not have time-reversal symmetry, H eff can also have a chiral three-spin interaction in each triangle, with the coefficient C of the interaction having opposite signs on up-and down-pointing triangles. Thus periodic driving which breaks time-reversal symmetry can simulate the effect of a perpendicular magnetic flux which is known to generate such a chiral term in the spin sector, even though our model does not have a magnetic flux. The four parameters (J α , J β , J γ , C) depend on the amplitude, frequency, and direction of the oscillating electric field. We then study the spin model as a function of these parameters using exact diagonalization and find a rich phase diagram of the ground state with seven different phases consisting of two kinds of ordered phases (collinear and coplanar) and disordered phases. Thus periodic driving of the Hubbard model on the triangular lattice can lead to an effective spin model whose couplings can be tuned over a range of values thereby producing a variety of interesting phases.

We study transport across either a potential or a magnetic barrier which is placed on the top surface of a three-dimensional thin topological insulator (TI). For such thin TIs, the top and bottom surfaces interact via a coupling λ which influences the transport properties of junctions constructed out of them. We find that for junctions hosting a potential barrier, the differential conductance oscillates with the barrier strength. The period of these oscillations doubles as the coupling λ changes from small values to a value close to the energy of the incident electrons. In contrast, for junctions with a magnetic barrier, the conductance approaches a nonzero constant as the barrier strength is increased. This feature is in contrast to the case of transport across a single TI surface where the conductance approaches zero as the strength of a magnetic barrier is increased. We also study the spin currents for these two kinds of barriers; in both cases, the spin current is found to have opposite signs on the top and bottom surfaces. Thus this system can be used to split applied charge currents to spin currents with opposite spin orientations which can be collected by applying opposite spin-polarized leads to the two surfaces. We show that several of these features of transport across finite width barriers can be understood analytically by studying the δ-function barrier limit. We discuss experiments which may test our theory.