Abstract
We have mapped out the spin texture of a surface alloy prepared on a thin Ag film by circularly polarized angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. A term proportional to in the interaction Hamiltonian gives rise to strong surface photoexcitation, which interferes with a Rashba contribution to yield a pronounced circular dichroic effect in . The dipole transition, often taken to be the only important photoexcitation mechanism, is actually negligible. A parameter-free calculation yields a dichroic pattern in excellent agreement with experiment.
- Received 2 February 2012
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.186403
© 2012 American Physical Society