Giant Spin-splitting in the Bi/Ag(111) Surface Alloy

TL;DR

This paper reports a giant spin-splitting in a Bi/Ag(111) surface alloy, revealing significant electronic and spintronic properties with potential applications in spintronics.

Contribution

It demonstrates a large spin-splitting of up to one eV in a surface alloy, enabling direct observation of near band-edge states and their density of states singularities.

Findings

Energy band separation up to 1 eV observed.

Quasi-one dimensional behavior near the band edge.

Local density of states singularity measured by STM.

Abstract

Surface alloying is shown to produce electronic states with a very large spin-splitting. We discuss the long range ordered bismuth/silver(111) surface alloy where an energy bands separation of up to one eV is achieved. Such strong spin-splitting enables angular resolved photoemission spectroscopy to directly observe the region close to the band edge, where the density of states shows quasi-one dimensional behavior. The associated singularity in the local density of states has been measured by low temperature scanning tunneling spectroscopy. The implications of this new class of materials for potential spintronics applications as well as fundamental issues are discussed.