Abstract
We reinvestigate the putative giant spin splitting at the surface of reported by Santander–Syro et al. [Nat. Mater. 13, 1085 (2014)]. Our spin- and angle-resolved photoemission experiments on fractured (001) oriented surfaces supporting a two-dimensional electron liquid with high carrier density show no detectable spin polarization in the photocurrent. We demonstrate that this result excludes a giant spin splitting while it is consistent with the unconventional Rashba-like splitting seen in band structure calculations that reproduce the experimentally observed ladder of quantum confined subbands.
- Received 19 February 2016
- Revised 25 May 2016
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.93.245143
©2016 American Physical Society