We study the manipulation of the photoelectron spin-polarization in Bi2Se3 by spin- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. General rules are established that enable controlling the spin-polarization of photoemitted electrons via light polarization, sample orientation, and photon energy. We demonstrate the ±100% reversal of a single component of the measured spin-polarization vector upon the rotation of light polarization, as well as a full three-dimensional manipulation by varying experimental configuration and photon energy. While a material-specific density-functional theory analysis is needed for the quantitative description, a minimal two-atomic-layer model qualitatively accounts for the spin response based on the interplay of optical selection rules, photoelectron interference, and topological surface-state complex structure. It follows that photoelectron spin-polarization control is generically achievable in systems with a layer-dependent, entangled spin-orbital texture.
@article{arxiv.1401.1224,
title = {Photoelectron spin-polarization-control in the topological insulator Bi2Se3},
author = {Z. -H. Zhu and C. N. Veenstra and S. Zhdanovich and M. P. Schneider and T. Okuda and K. Miyamoto and S. -Y. Zhu and H. Namatame and M. Taniguchi and M. W. Haverkort and I. S. Elfimov and A. Damascelli},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1401.1224},
year = {2014}
}
Comments
5 pages, 4 figures. A high-resolution version with supplementary material can be found at: http://www.phas.ubc.ca/~quantmat/ARPES/PUBLICATIONS/Articles/BiSe_spin_ARPES.pdf