Effect of proximity-induced spin-orbit coupling in graphene mesoscopic billiards

Abstract

van der Waals heterostructures based on two-dimensional materials have recently become a very active topic of research in spintronics, both aiming at a fundamental description of spin dephasing processes in nanostructures and as a potential element in spin-based information processing schemes. Here, we theoretically investigate the magnetoconductance of mesoscopic devices built from graphene proximity-coupled to a high spin-orbit coupling material. Through numerically exact tight-binding simulations, we show that the interfacial breaking of inversion symmetry generates robust weak antilocalization even when the z →−z symmetric spin-orbit coupling in the quantum dot dominates over the Bychkov-Rashba interaction. Our findings are interpreted in the light of random matrix theory, which links the observed behavior of quantum interference corrections to a transition from a circular-orthogonal to circular-symplectic ensemble.

Electronic transport in three-terminal chaotic systems with a tunnel barrier

“…Interest in the mesoscopic regime stems from to the fact that electrons can maintain phase coherence throughout the process, leading to observable quantum effects. One of the most important examples of ballistic mesoscopic sample are the chaotic semiconductor billiards, one of the platforms for studying quantum chaos [6,7,8,9,10], the interplay between quantum properties and chaotic dynamics [11,12,13].…”

Electronic transport in three-terminal chaotic systems with a tunnel barrier

“…Interest in the mesoscopic regime stems from the fact that electrons can maintain phase coherence throughout the process, leading to observable quantum effects. One of the most important examples of ballistic mesoscopic sample are the chaotic semiconductor billiards, one of the platforms for studying quantum chaos [6][7][8][9][10], the interplay between quantum properties and chaotic dynamics [11][12][13].…”

Multifractal Magnetoconductance Fluctuations in Mesoscopic Systems

“…From a physical perspective, UCF can be traced back to quantum interference effects caused by multiple wave scatterings inside the sample. Furthermore, UCF are ubiquitous in that they have been observed in a great deal of phase-coherent electron transport systems, from diffusive nanowires [3][4][5][6][7] to ballistic chaotic billiards [8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. There is, however, a fundamental difference in the scattering mechanism of diffusive nanowires and ballistic chaotic billiards.…”