Ballistic transport spectroscopy of spin-orbit-coupled bands in monolayer graphene on WSe$_2$

Abstract

Van der Waals interactions with transition metal dichalcogenides was shown to induce strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in graphene, offering great promises to combine large experimental flexibility of graphene with unique tuning capabilities of the SOC that can rotate spin by moving electrons or vice versa. Here, we probe SOC-driven band splitting and electron dynamics in graphene on WSe$_2$ by measuring ballistic transverse magnetic focusing. We found a clear splitting in the first focusing peak whose evolution in charge density and magnetic field is well reproduced by calculations using SOC strength of ~13 meV and no splitting in the second peak that indicates stronger Rashba SOC. A possible suppression of electron-electron scatterings was also found in temperature dependence measurement. Further, we found that Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations exhibit SOC strength of ~3.4 meV, suggesting that it probes different electron dynamics, calling for new theory. Our study demonstrates an interesting possibility to exploit ballistic electron motion pronounced in graphene for emerging spin-orbitronics.