We investigate the interplay between the strong correlation and the spin-orbit coupling in the Kane-Mele-Hubbard model and obtain the qualitative phase diagram via the variational cluster approach. We identify, through an increase of the Hubbard U, the transition from the topological band insulator to either the spin liquid phase or the easy-plane antiferromagnetic insulating phase, depending o...

Fully relativistic first-principles calculations of the Fe(001) surface demonstrate that resonant surface (interface) states may produce sizable tunneling anisotropic magnetoresistance in magnetic tunnel junctions with a single magnetic electrode. The effect is driven by the spin-orbit coupling. It shifts the resonant surface band via the Rashba effect when the magnetization direction changes. ...

We derive the extension of the Hubbard model to include Rashba spin-orbit coupling that correctly describes Aharonov-Bohm and Aharonov-Casher phases in a ring under applied magnetic and electric fields. When the ring is connected to conducting leads, we develop a formalism that is able to describe both, Kondo and interference effects. We find that in the Kondo regime, the spin-orbit coupling re...

Nonlocal spin transport in nanostructured devices with ferromagnetic injector (F1) and detector (F2) electrodes connected to a normal conductor (N) is studied. We reveal how the spin transport depends on interface resistance, electrode resistance, spin polarization and spin diffusion length, and obtain the conditions for efficient spin injection, spin accumulation and spin current in the device...

The transport properties of finite nanotubes placed in a magnetic field parallel to their axes are investigated. Upon including spin-orbit coupling and curvature effects, two main phenomena are analyzed that crucially depend on the tube’s chirality: (i) Finite carbon nanotubes in a parallel magnetic field may present a suppression of current due to the localization at the edges of otherwise con...

We study orbital and spin-orbit proximity effects in graphene adsorbed to the Cu(111) surface by means of density functional theory (DFT). The proximity effects are caused mainly by the hybridization of graphene π and copper d orbitals. Our electronic structure calculations agree well with the experimentally observed features. We carry out a graphene-Cu(111) distance dependent study to obtain p...

We study the transverse electron focusing in a two-dimensional electron gas with Rashba spin-orbit coupling. We show that the interplay between the external magnetic field and the spin-orbit coupling gives two branches of states with different cyclotron radius within the same energy window. This effect generates a splitting of the first focusing peak in two contributions. Each one of these cont...

We study the level crossing in the energy spectrum due to Rashba-Dresselhaus spinorbit coupling in nanowires modulated by longitudinal potential. By implementing both an analytical methodology and a numerical technique based on the finite element method (FEM), we show that the level crossing point can be manipulated with the application of spin-orbit coupling in parabolic nanowires. In particul...

We propose realizing the quantum anomalous Hall effect by proximity coupling graphene to an antiferromagnetic insulator that provides both broken time-reversal symmetry and spin-orbit coupling. We illustrate our idea by performing ab initio calculations for graphene adsorbed on the (111) surface of BiFeO3. In this case, we find that the proximity-induced exchange field in graphene is about 70 m...

We investigate Andreev reflection (AR) resonant tunneling through a precessing spin which is coupled to a normal metallic lead and a superconducting lead. The formula of the AR conductance at zero temperature is obtained as a function of chemical potential and azimuthal angle of the spin precessing by using the nonequilibrium Green function method. It is found that as the local spin precesses i...