Photoelectron holography studies of Bi on Si(111)
Photoelectron holography is applied to Bi atoms adsorbed on Si(111) for a determination of the three-dimensional atomic structure. Instead of measuring the absolute intensity as a function of photon energy as is traditionally done, a differential measurement is carried out to yield the logarithmic derivative of the intensity. This leads to intensity self-normalization, and significantly improves the accuracy. The resulting images show a well-resolved trimer structure for the adsorption geometry.
Spectroscopic Studies on Semiconducting Interfaces with Giant Spin Splitting
The application of an external magnetic field can lift the spin degeneracy of electronic states through its interaction with the electronic magnetic moment. A closely-related phenomenon is the Rashba-Bychkov (RB) effect where symmetry breaking at surfaces or interfaces gives rise to an electric field which is in turn seen as an effective magnetic field in the electrons' rest frame. The resulting k-dependent energy splitting of spin-polarized electronic states has been observed on various metal surfaces but the effect is much larger in artificially-grown surface alloys; such as the BiAg2 grown at the surface of Ag(111). The spin splitting magnitude observed in these systems might be very useful in spintronics applications since it could decrease the spin precession time in a spin transistor and distinguish between the extrinsic and intrinsic spin Hall effects. Nevertheless, their metallic character poses serious obstacles in the exploitation of the RB effect due to the presence of spin-degenerate electronic states at the Fermi level which would dominate transport experiments. We have used angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) to explore the RB effects on various artificially grown structures, formed on semiconducting substrates. The interplay of quantum confinement and giant RB splitting on a trilayer Si(111)-Ag-BiAg2 system reveals the formation of a complex spin-dependent structure, which can be externally tuned by varying the Ag layer thickness. This provides a means to tailor the electronic structure and spin polarization near the Fermi level, with potential applications on Si-compatible spintronic devices. Moreover, we have discovered a giant spin splitting in a true semiconducting system, namely the Si(111)-Bi trimer phase. The size of the RB parameters is comparable to those of metallic surface alloys. Using theoretical models we have identified the peculiar band topology as the origin of the giant spin splitting on the Bi/Si(111) system. All our findings are supported by relativistic first-principles calculations. Finally, a chapter of this thesis manuscript is devoted to the description of phenomeno-logical theoretical simulation, which can capture the experimental results related to the RB effect on low-dimensional systems. A parallel experimental project is discussed in a separate chapter. It has been focused on the band topology of the novel p(2 × 2) reconstruction of the Pt(111)-Ag-Bi trilayer. We investigated the symmetry properties of the interface states by varying the amount of Ag. ARPES results present the electronic signature of a strain-related structural transition.
Near‐surface atom imaging using multiple‐energy photoelectron holography
Copper atoms near a (100) single crystal face were imaged using multiple‐energy photoelectron holography. Experimental holograms were extracted from Cu 3p photoelectron angular distributions that were measured at nine kinetic energies from 268 to 477 eV. Synchrotron radiation was used to excite the 3p core electrons to these energies. Each hologram was Fourier transformed and then multiple‐energy phase summed to produce higher fidelity atom images. With this demonstration of the multiple‐energy method substantial resolution improvement, twin image suppression, and artifact removal was achieved.