Publication Date:
2018-03-30
Description:
Author(s): Pengke Li (李鹏科) and Ian Appelbaum As previously explored with sophisticated computational methods, projecting out incomplete components of Bloch wave functions yields ‘states’ that appear to be ‘spin polarized’. Here, the consequences and physical relevance of this so-called hidden spin polarization obtained by wave-function truncation is revealed by inspection of analytically solvable models. Importantly, the limitations and shortcomings of this electronic structure decomposition are illuminated using arguments focused on operator commutativity and broken gauge freedom in degenerate wave-function projection. Moreover, it is shown how surface-sensitive measurements using experimental techniques, such as ARPES, are inevitably convoluted by intrinsic spin splitting of the band structure due to broken inversion symmetry at the surface. [Phys. Rev. B 97, 125434] Published Thu Mar 29, 2018
Keywords:
Surface physics, nanoscale physics, low-dimensional systems
Print ISSN:
1098-0121
Electronic ISSN:
1095-3795
Topics:
Physics
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