Hugo Dil, Paul-Scherrer-Institut, Villigen, Switzerland,
The electronic structure of non-magnetic low-dimensional materials can acquire a spin structure due to the breaking of the inversion symmetry at the surface or interface. This so-called Rashba effect is a prime candidate for the manipulation of the electron spin without using any magnetic fields. This is crucial for the emerging field of spintronics, where the spin of the electron instead of its charge is used to transport or store information. Spin and angle resolved photoemission is currently one of the main experimental methods to measure the spin resolved electronic structure, which contains all the relevant information for spintronics [1]. After an overview of the possibilities and limitations of this technique, it will be shown how the knowledge obtained from model Rashba systems can be applied to increasingly complex systems and result in the possibility to manipulate the spin structure of ultrathin Pb films [2] and topological insulators [3].
[1] For a review see: J. Hugo Dil, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 21 403001 (2009).
[2] H. Dil et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 266802 (2008).
[3] D. Hsieh et al. Nature 460, 1101 (2009).