Research at the VUV

VUV photoemission and its users

The beamline operate in time sharing with SpectroMicroscopy beamline, with 66,6% of time destinated for VUV, i.e. 130 days/year. 35 % of the beamtime is allocated to italian users, 35% is open to general users, and 30% for in-house research, tests, maintenance and commissioning. The average duration of an experiment at VUV is 7 days (21 shifts).
From 2000 to 2019 725 proposals were submitted to VUV photoemission, among them 547 as VUV first choice, and 259 of them were scheduled. In the same period the VUV users published 165 articles with mean impact factor of 3.6.

Browse our Publications

Research fields

Research takes place in fields related to surface physics and chemistry, materials science, magnetism, and nanotechnology. Among our topics are graphene-based systems, 1D systems, quantum size effects in thin metal films, electronic structure and transport, magnetic materials, self-assembled molecular layers and many other.

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Recent research activity

Indirect chiral magnetic exchange through Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya-enhanced RKKY interactions in manganese oxide chains on Ir(100)

Localized electron spins can couple magnetically via the Ruderman–Kittel–Kasuya–Yosida interaction even if their wave functions lack direct overlap. Theory predicts that spin–orbit scattering leads to a Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya type enhancement of this indirect exchange interaction, giving rise to chiral exchange terms. 

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Electronic structure of the Ge/Si(1 0 5) hetero-interface: an ARPES and DFT study

We present a joint experimental and theoretical study of the electronic properties of the rebonded-step reconstructed Ge/Si(1 0 5) surface which is the main strained face found on Ge/Si(0 0 1) quantum dots and is considered a prototypical model system for surface strain relaxation in heteroepitaxial growth. 


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Electronic States of Silicene Allotropes on Ag(111)

Silicene, a honeycomb lattice of silicon, presents a particular case of allotropism on Ag(111). Silicene forms multiple structures with alike in-plane geometry but different out-of-plane atomic buckling and registry to the substrate. Angle-resolved photoemission and first-principles calculations show that these silicene structures, with (4×4), (√13×√13)R13.9°, and (2√3×2√3)R30° lattice periodicity, display similar electronic bands despite the structural differences. 


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Asymmetric band gaps in a Rashba film system

The joint effect of exchange and Rashba spin-orbit interactions is examined on the surface and quantum well states of Ag2Bi-terminated Ag films grown on ferromagnetic Fe(110). The system displays a particular combination of time-reversal and translational symmetry breaking that strongly influences its electronic structure. Angle-resolved photoemission reveals asymmetric band-gap openings, due to spin-selective hybridization between Rashba-split surface states and exchange-split quantum well states.


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Magnetization-dependent Rashba splitting of quantum well states at the Co/W interface

Exchange and Rashba spin-orbit interactions are expected to couple at ferromagnetic-metal/heavy-metal interfaces and influence their electronic structure. We examine these largely unexplored effects in Co(0001) films on W(110) by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. We find breaking of inversion symmetry in the band dispersion of magnetic quantum well states along structurally equivalent directions of the Co films. 


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