The relation between crystal symmetries, electron correlations, and electronic structure steers the formation of a large array of unconventional phases of matter, including magneto-electric loop currents and chiral magnetism. Detection of such hidden orders is a major goal in condensed matter physics. However, to date, nonstandard forms of magnetism with chiral electronic ordering have been experimentally elusive. Here, we develop a theory for symmetry-broken chiral ground states and propose a methodology based on circularly polarized spin-selective angular-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy to probe them. We exploit the archetypal quantum material Sr2RuO4 and reveal spectroscopic signatures which, even though subtle, may be reconciled with the formation of spin-orbital chiral currents at the material surface. As we shed light on these chiral regimes, our findings pave the way for a deeper understanding of ordering phenomena and unconventional magnetism.
@article{arxiv.2402.08319,
title = {Signatures of a surface spin-orbital chiral metal},
author = {Federico Mazzola and Wojciech Brzezicki and Maria Teresa Mercaldo and Anita Guarino and Chiara Bigi and Jill A. Miwa and Domenico De Fazio and Alberto Crepaldi and Jun Fujii and Giorgio Rossi and Pasquale Orgiani and Sandeep Kumar Chaluvadi and Shyni Punathum Chalil and Giancarlo Panaccione and Anupam Jana and Vincent Polewczyk and Ivana Vobornik and Changyoung Kim and Fabio Miletto Granozio and Rosalba Fittipaldi and Carmine Ortix and Mario Cuoco and Antonio Vecchione},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.08319},
year = {2024}
}