  In this article we review recent work on van der Waals (vdW) systems in which
at least one of the components has strong spin-orbit coupling. We focus on a
selection of vdW heterostructures to exemplify the type of interesting
electronic properties that can arise in these systems. We first present a
general effective model to describe the low energy electronic degrees of
freedom in these systems. We apply the model to study the case of (vdW) systems
formed by a graphene sheet and a topological insulator. We discuss the
electronic transport properties of such systems and show how they exhibit much
stronger spin-dependent transport effects than isolated topological insulators.
We then consider vdW systems in which the layer with strong spin-orbit coupling
is a monolayer transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) and briefly discuss
graphene-TMD systems. In the second part of the article we discuss the case in
which the vdW system includes a superconducting layer in addition to the layer
with strong spin-orbit coupling. We show in detail how these systems can be
designed to realize odd-frequency superconducting pair correlations. Finally,
we discuss twisted graphene-NbSe2 bilayer systems as an example in which the
strength of the proximity-induced superconducting pairing in the normal layer,
and its Ising character, can be tuned via the relative twist angle between the
two layers forming the heterostructure.
