Role of spin in quasiparticle interference.
Quasiparticle interference patterns measured by scanning tunneling microscopy can be used to study the local electronic structure of metal surfaces and high-temperature superconductors. Here, we show that even in nonmagnetic systems the spin of the quasiparticles can have a profound effect on the interference patterns. On Bi(110), where the surface state bands are not spin degenerate, the patterns are not related to the dispersion of the electronic states in a simple way. In fact, the features which are expected for the spin-independent situation are absent and the observed interference patterns can be interpreted only by taking spin-conserving scattering events into account.
Pascual
J I
JI
Institut für Experimentalphysik, Freie Universität Berlin, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
Bihlmayer
G
G
Koroteev
Yu M
YM
Rust
H-P
HP
Ceballos
G
G
Hansmann
M
M
Horn
K
K
Chulkov
E V
EV
Blügel
S
S
Echenique
P M
PM
Hofmann
Ph
P