Strong Linear Dichroism in Spin-Polarized Photoemission from Spin-Orbit-Coupled Surface States

Abstract

A comprehensive understanding of spin-polarized photoemission is crucial for accessing the electronic structure of spin-orbit coupled materials. Yet, the impact of the final state in the photoemission process on the photoelectron spin has been difficult to assess in these systems. We present experiments for the spin-orbit split states in a Bi-Ag surface alloy showing that the alteration of the final state with energy may cause a complete reversal of the photoelectron spin polarization. We explain the effect on the basis of ab initio one-step photoemission theory and describe how it originates from linear dichroism in the angular distribution of photoelectrons. Our analysis shows that the modulated photoelectron spin polarization reflects the intrinsic spin density of the surface state being sampled differently depending on the final state, and it indicates linear dichroism as a natural probe of spin-orbit coupling at surfaces.

arXiv commentNew manuscript with a changed interpretation and theoretical description of the experimental results

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Cited by in corpus (15)

• Prediction and observation of the first antiferromagnetic topological insulator
• Observation of plaid-like spin splitting in a noncoplanar antiferromagnet
• Coexistence of Surface Ferromagnetism and Gapless Topological State in MnBi${}_2$Te${}_4$
• Orbital-driven Rashba effect in a binary honeycomb monolayer AgTe
• Observation of a cubic Rashba effect in the surface spin structure of rare-earth ternary materials
• Momentum-space signatures of Berry flux monopoles in a Weyl semimetal
• Rashba spin splitting of L-gap surface states on Ag(111) and Cu(111)
• Orbital Fingerprint of Topological Fermi Arcs in a Weyl Semimetal
• Anisotropic magneto-optical absorption and linear dichroism in two-dimensional semi-Dirac electron systems
• Berry Curvature Signatures in Chiroptical Excitonic Transitions
• The Huygens Principle of Angle-Resolved Photoemission
• Probing magnetic orbitals and Berry curvature with circular dichroism in resonant inelastic X-ray scattering
• Geometry-induced spin-filtering in photoemission maps from WTe${}_2$ surface states
• Ab initio many-body photoemission theory of transverse energy distribution of photoelectrons: PbTe(111) as a case study with experimental comparisons
• Observation of spin splitting in the surface electronic structure of antiferromagnet NdBi