Optical spin injection in graphene with Rashba spin-orbit interaction

We calculate the efficiency of infrared optical spin injection in single-layer graphene with Rashba spin-orbit coupling and for in-plane magnetic field. The injection rate in the photon frequency range corresponding to the Rashba splitting is shown to be proportional to the ratio of the Zeeman and Rashba splittings. As a result, large spin polarization can be controllably achieved for experimentally available values of the spin-orbit coupling and in magnetic fields below 10 Tesla.