Quantum transport of Dirac fermions in graphene with a spatially varying Rashba spin-orbit coupling

We theoretically study electronic transport through a region with inhomogeneous Rashba spin-orbit (RSO) coupling placed between two normal regions in a monolayer graphene. The inhomogeneous RSO region is characterized by linearly varying RSO strength within its borders and constant RSO strength in the central region. We calculate the transmission properties within the transfer matrix approach. It is shown that the amplitude of conductance oscillations reduces and at the same time the magnitude of conductance increases with increasing border thickness. We also investigate how the Fano factor can be modified by the border thickness of RSO region. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.