Abstract
The mutual interplay between superlattice structures, band filling factors, and spin-orbit coupling results in a highly correlated electronic spin and charge state found for an array of atomic Pb wires grown on Si(557). By means of spin- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, the spin texture close to the Fermi surface was found to be alternating and equidistant; thus, Fermi nesting occurs in between bands with the same spin helicity, giving rise to spin-polarized charge-density waves in the direction across the wires. An out-of-phase superposition of both Rashba channels is manifested by an extraordinary large Rashba splitting of , where is a reciprocal lattice vector defined by the interwire distance and fits into the model of spin-density waves in antiferromagnetically ordered chain structures. The implications towards spin-polarized transport along the wires will be discussed.
- Received 3 August 2012
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.266401
© 2012 American Physical Society