Figure 1

(a) Rashba SO split electron dispersions ${\hslash }^2∕2m{(k\pm k_R)}^2$ in units of ${ϵ}_R=m∕8{\gamma }_R^2$. The horizontal dashed line indicates the Fermi level. (b) Density of states for the ± bands. (c) Plots of ${\Gamma }_k$, Eq. (13), and ${\chi }_k$, Eq. (14).Reuse & Permissions

Figure 2

(a) Spin-polarization time evolution from Eq. (16) (solid line) for ${ϵ}_R=10\mathrm{meV}$ and ${ϵ}_F=80\mathrm{meV}$ corresponding to the band parameters of surface states in Bi(111) (Ref. 11). The momentum lifetime has been chosen to be ${\tau }_p=20\mathrm{fs}$, in agreement with the angle-resolved photoemission results of Ref. 26. The dotted line is the power law decay of Eq. (20) while the gray solid line is Eq. (17). (b) Crossover from the power law decay of Eq. (20) and the fast relaxation decay of Eq. (21) obtained for ${\tau }_p{ϵ}_F∕\hslash =1∕40$ and several values of ${ϵ}_F∕{ϵ}_R$.Reuse & Permissions