Fermi nesting between atomic wires with strong spin-orbit coupling

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 Δk0=0.2 Å−1=g/2, where g 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. © 2012 American Physical Society.