Research report 2007 - Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics
Surface Alloys: A Class of Materials with Giant Rashba Spin-Orbit Coupling
Authors
Henk, Jürgen
Departments
Theorie-Abteilung (Prof. Dr. Jürgen Kirschner)
MPI für Mikrostrukturphysik, Halle (Saale)
Summary
The surface alloy Bi/Ag( 111) exhibits a giant spin splitting of its surface electronic structure due to Rashba spin-orbit coupling. Electronic structure calculations prove that the effect is brought about by an in-plane structural inversion asymmetry in the surface layer, in interplay with the conventional Rashba effect. These findings pave the way for testing theoretical predictions for spin-orbit split two-dimensional electron gases.