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Updated: Jun 3, 2026

Experimental Methods for Spin- and Angle-Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy Combined with Polarization-Variable Laser
Published on: June 28, 2018
Interference of spin states in photoemission from Sb/Ag(111) surface alloys
Fabian Meier1, Vladimir Petrov, Hossein Mirhosseini
1Physik-Institut, Universität Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland.
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.
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