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Updated: May 24, 2026

Fabrication of Gate-tunable Graphene Devices for Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Studies with Coulomb Impurities
Published on: July 24, 2015
Ir(111) surface state with giant Rashba splitting persists under graphene in air
A Varykhalov1, D Marchenko, M R Scholz
1Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie, Elektronenspeicherring BESSY II, Berlin, Germany.
Abstract:
We reveal a giant Rashba effect (α(R)≈1.3 eV Å) on a surface state of Ir(111) by angle-resolved photoemission and by density functional theory. It is demonstrated that the existence of the surface state, its spin polarization, and the size of its Rashba-type spin-orbit splitting remain unaffected when Ir is covered with graphene. The graphene protection is, in turn, sufficient for the spin-split surface state to survive in ambient atmosphere. We discuss this result along with indications for a topological protection of the surface state.
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