Relaxation of electron–hole spins in strained graphene nanoribbons

We investigate the influence of magnetic field originating from the electromechanical effect on the spin-flip behaviors caused by electromagnetic field radiation in the strained graphene nanoribbons (GNRs). We show that the spin splitting energy difference (≈10 meV) due to pseudospin is much larger than the spin-orbit coupling effect (Balakrishnan et al 2013 Nat. Phys. 9 284) that might provide an evidence of broken symmetry of degeneracy. The induced spin splitting energy due to ripple waves can be further enhanced with increasing values of applied tensile edge stress for potential applications in straintronic devices. In particular, we show that the enhancement in the magnitude of the ripple waves due to externally applied tensile edge stress extends the tuning of spin-flip behaviors to larger widths of GNRs. (paper)