title: Interference of spin states in photoemission from Sb/Ag(111) surface alloys.
abstract: Using a three-dimensional spin polarimeter we have gathered evidence for the interference of spin states in photoemission from the surface alloy Sb/Ag(111). This system features a small Rashba-type spin splitting of a size comparable to the momentum broadening of the quasiparticles, thus causing an intrinsic overlap between states with orthogonal spinors. Besides a small spin polarization caused by the spin splitting, we observe a large spin polarization component in the plane normal to the quantization axis of the Rashba effect. Strongly suggestive of coherent spin rotation, this effect is largely independent of the photon energy and photon polarization.
authors.affiliation: Physik-Institut, Universität Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Fabian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Meier
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Petrov
authors.forename: Hossein
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mirhosseini
authors.forename: Luc
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Patthey
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Henk
authors.forename: Jürg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Osterwalder
authors.forename: J Hugo
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Dil
mesh_terms: D000497:Alloys / Q000737:chemistry*; D000965:Antimony / Q000737:chemistry*; D008027:Light; D008422:Materials Testing; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D010316:Particle Size; D012834:Silver / Q000737:chemistry*; D013113:Spin Labels
chemical_list: D000497:Alloys; D013113:Spin Labels; D012834:Silver; D000965:Antimony