Observation of spin-orbit magnetoresistance in metallic thin films on magnetic insulators.

A magnetoresistance (MR) effect induced by the Rashba spin-orbit interaction was predicted, but not yet observed, in bilayers consisting of normal metal and ferromagnetic insulator. We present an experimental observation of this new type of spin-orbit MR (SOMR) effect in the Cu[Pt]/YFeO (YIG) bilayer structure, where the Cu/YIG interface is decorated with nanosize Pt islands. This new MR is apparently not caused by the bulk spin-orbit interaction because of the negligible spin-orbit interaction in Cu and the discontinuity of the Pt islands.

The effects of disorder and interactions on the Anderson transition in doped graphene.

We undertake an exact numerical study of the effects of disorder on the Anderson localization of electronic states in graphene. Analyzing the scaling behaviors of inverse participation ratio and geometrically averaged density of states, we find that the Anderson metal-insulator transition can be introduced by the presence of quenched random disorder. In contrast with the conventional picture of localization, four mobility edges can be observed for the honeycomb lattice with specific disorder strength and impurity concentration.