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A vacuum-compatible photon-counting hybrid pixel detector has been installed in the ultra-high vacuum (UHV) reflectometer of the four-crystal monochromator (FCM) beamline of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) at the electron storage ring BESSY II in Berlin, Germany. The setup is based on the PILATUS3 100K module. The detector can be used in the entire photon energy range accessible at the beamline from 1.75 to 10 keV. Complementing the already installed vacuum-compatible PILATUS 1M detector used for small-angle scattering (SAXS) and grazing incidence SAXS (GISAXS), it is possible to access larger scattering angles. The water-cooled module is located on the goniometer arm and can be positioned from -90{\deg} to 90{\deg} with respect to the incoming beam at a distance of about 200 mm from the sample. To perform absolute scattering experiments the linearity, homogeneity and the angular dependence of the quantum efficiency, including their relative uncertainties, have been investigated. In addition, first results of the performance in wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray reflectometry (XRR) are presented., Comment: The following article has been accepted by Review of Scientific Instruments. After it is published, it will be found at https://aip.scitation.org/journal/rsi

The control of the electron spin by external means is a key issue for spintronic devices. Using spin- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (SARPES) with three-dimensional spin detection, we demonstrate operando electrostatic spin manipulation in ferroelectric GeTe and multiferroic Ge1-xMnxTe. We not only demonstrate for the first time electrostatic spin manipulation in Rashba semiconductors due to ferroelectric polarization reversal, but are also able to follow the switching pathway in detail, and show a gain of the Rashba-splitting strength under external fields. In multiferroic Ge1-xMnxTe operando SARPES reveals switching of the perpendicular spin component due to electric field induced magnetization reversal. This provides firm evidence of effective multiferroic coupling which opens up magnetoelectric functionality with a multitude of spin-switching paths in which the magnetic and electric order parameters are coupled through ferroelastic relaxation paths. This work thus provides a new type of magnetoelectric switching entangled with Rashba-Zeeman splitting in a multiferroic system., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures

The interplay between electronic eigenstates, spin, and orbital degrees of freedom, combined with fundamental breaking of symmetries is currently one of the most exciting fields of research. Multiferroics such as (GeMn)Te fulfill these requirements providing unusual physical properties due to the coexistence and coupling between ferromagnetic and ferroelectric order in one and the same system. Here we show that multiferroic (GeMn)Te inherits from its parent ferroelectric {\alpha}-GeTe compound a giant Rashba splitting of three-dimensional bulk states which competes with the Zeeman spin splitting induced by the magnetic exchange interactions. The collinear alignment of ferroelectric and ferromagnetic polarization leads to an opening of a tunable Zeeman gap of up to 100 meV around the Dirac point of the Rashba bands, coupled with a change in spin texture by entanglement of magnetic and spin-orbit order. Through applications of magnetic fields, we demonstrate manipulation of spin- texture by spin resolved photoemission experiments, which is also expected for electric fields based on the multiferroic coupling. The control of spin helicity of the bands and its locking to ferromagnetic and ferroelectric order opens fascinating new avenues for highly multifunctional multiferroic Rashba devices suited for reprogrammable logic and/or nonvolatile memory applications., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures

In systems with broken inversion symmetry spin-orbit coupling (SOC) yields a Rashba-type spin splitting of electronic states, manifested in a k-dependent splitting of the bands. While most research had previously focused on 2D electron systems, recently a three-dimensional (3D) form of such Rashba-effect was found in a series of bismuth tellurohalides. Whereas these materials exhibit a very large spin-splitting, they lack an important property concerning functionalization, namely the possibility to switch or tune the spin texture. This limitation can be overcome in a new class of functional materials displaying Rashba-splitting coupled to ferroelectricity: the ferroelectric Rashba semiconductors (FERS). Using spin- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (SARPES) we show that GeTe(111) forms a prime member of this class, displaying a complex spin-texture for the Rashba-split surface and bulk bands arising from the intrinsic inversion symmetry breaking caused by the ferroelectric polarization of the bulk (FE). Apart from pure surface and bulk states we find surface-bulk resonant states (SBR) whose wavefunctions entangle the spinors from the bulk and surface contributions. At the Fermi level their hybridization results in unconventional spin topologies with cochiral helicities and concomitant gap opening. The GeTe(111) surface and SBR states make the semiconductor surface conducting. At the same time our SARPES data confirm that GeTe is a narrow-gap semiconductor, suggesting that GeTe(111) electronic states are endowed with spin properties that are theoretically challenging to anticipate. As the helicity of the spins in Rashba bands is connected to the direction of the FE polarization, this work paves the way to all-electric non-volatile control of spin-transport properties in semiconductors.

The interface and electronic structure of thin (~20-74 nm) Co3O4(110) epitaxial films grown by oxygen-assisted molecular beam epitaxy on MgAl2O4(110) single crystal substrates have been investigated by means of real and reciprocal space techniques. As-grown film surfaces are found to be relatively disordered and exhibit an oblique low energy electron diffraction (LEED) pattern associated with the O-rich CoO2 bulk termination of the (110) surface. Interface and bulk film structure are found to improve significantly with post-growth annealing at 820 K in air and display sharp rectangular LEED patterns, suggesting a surface stoichiometry of the alternative Co2O2 bulk termination of the (110) surface. Non-contact atomic force microscopy demonstrates the presence of wide terraces separated by atomic steps in the annealed films that are not present in the as-grown structures; the step height of ~ 2.7 A corresponds to two atomic layers and confirms a single termination for the annealed films, consistent with the LEED results. A model of the (1 * 1) surfaces that allows for compensation of the polar surfaces is presented., Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures