Large spin-orbit coupling in carbon nanotubes
Abstract
It has recently been recognized that the strong spin-orbit interaction present in solids can lead to new phenomena, such as materials with non-trivial topological order. Although the atomic spin-orbit coupling in carbon is weak, the spin-orbit coupling in carbon nanotubes can be significant due to their curved surface. Previous works have reported spin-orbit couplings in reasonable agreement with theory, and this coupling strength has formed the basis of a large number of theoretical proposals. Here we report a spin-orbit coupling in three carbon nanotube devices that is an order of magnitude larger than measured before. We find a zero-field spin splitting of up to 3.4 meV, corresponding to a built-in effective magnetic field of 29 T aligned along the nanotube axis. While the origin of the large spin-orbit coupling is not explained by existing theories, its strength is promising for applications of the spin-orbit interaction in carbon nanotubes devices.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1304.3234,
title = {Large spin-orbit coupling in carbon nanotubes},
author = {G. A. Steele and F. Pei and E. A. Laird and J. M. Jol and H. B. Meerwaldt and L. P. Kouwenhoven},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1304.3234},
year = {2013}
}