Strongly anisotropic spin and orbital Rashba effect at a tellurium – noble metal interface
B. Geldiyev, M. Ünzelmann, Philipp Eck, Tilman Kißlinger, Jakub Schusser, T. Figgemeier, Philipp Kagerer, Nikolas Tezak, Maxim Krivenkov, A. Varykhalov, А. В. Федоров, Laurent Nicolaï, J. Minář, K. Miyamoto, Taichi Okuda, K. Shimada, Domenico Di Sante, Giorgio Sangiovanni, Lutz Hammer, M. Alexander Schneider, Hendrik Bentmann, F. Reinert
Abstract
The orbital Rashba effect describes the formation of chiral orbital angular momentum textures upon inversion symmetry breaking at surfaces or interfaces. Here, the authors unveil a pronounced anisotropic spin-orbit splitting with a Rashba-type spin polarization in the electronic interface states in the model system Te/Au(100). Exploring the momentum-dependent response of inversion symmetry breaking, they particularly demonstrate that the orbital texture leads to a strongly anisotropic spin and orbital Rashba effect. These findings will provide a valuable contribution to the discovery and understanding of future ``orbitronic'' phenomena.