Illuminating "spin-polarized" Bloch wave-function projection from degenerate bands in decomposable centrosymmetric lattices

Abstract

The combination of space inversion and time reversal symmetries result in doubly-degenerate Bloch states with opposite spin. Many lattices with these symmetries can be constructed by combining a noncentrosymmetric potential (lacking this degeneracy) with its inverted copy. Using simple models, we unravel the evolution of local spin-splitting during this process of inversion symmetry restoration, in the presence of spin-orbit interaction and sublattice coupling. Importantly, through an analysis of quantum mechanical commutativity, we examine the difficulty of identifying states that are simultaneously spatially segregated and spin polarized. We also explain how experimental probes (such as angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, or ARPES) of `hidden spin polarization' in layered materials are susceptible to unrelated spin splitting intrinsically induced by broken inversion symmetry at the surface.