Abrupt rotation of the Rashba spin to the direction perpendicular to the surface.
The polarization vector of the Rashba spin, which must be parallel to the two-dimensional (2D) plane in an ideal system, is found to change abruptly and definitely to the direction perpendicular to the surface at the K point of the Brillouin zone of a real hexagonal system, the Tl/Si(111)-(1x1) surface. This finding obtained experimentally by angle-resolved and spin-resolved photoemission measurements is fully confirmed by a first-principles theoretical calculation. We found that the abrupt rotation of the Rashba spin is simply understood by the 2D symmetry of the hexagonal structure.
Sakamoto
Kazuyuki
K
Graduate School of Advanced Integration Science, Chiba University, Chiba 263-8522, Japan. kazuyuki_sakamoto@faculty.chiba-u.jp
Oda
Tatsuki
T
Kimura
Akio
A
Miyamoto
Koji
K
Tsujikawa
Masahito
M
Imai
Ayako
A
Ueno
Nobuo
N
Namatame
Hirofumi
H
Taniguchi
Masaki
M
Eriksson
P E J
PE
Uhrberg
R I G
RI