First-Principles Calculations of Angle-Resolved and Spin-Resolved Photoemission Spectra of Cr(110) Surfaces at the 2p-3d Cr Resonance

A first principles approach for spin-and angle-resolved resonant photoemission is developed within multiple scattering theory and applied to a Cr(110) surface at the 2p-3d resonance. The resonant photocurrent from this nonferromagnetic system is found to be strongly spin polarized by circularly polarized light, in agreement with experiments on antiferromagnetic and magnetically disordered systems. By comparing the antiferromagnetic and Pauli-paramagnetic phases of Cr, we explicitly show that the spin polarization of the photocurrent is independent of the existence of local magnetic moments, solving a long-standing debate on the origin of such polarization. New spin polarization effects are predicted for the paramagnetic phase even with unpolarized light, opening new directions for full mapping of spin interactions in macroscopically nonmagnetic or nanostructured systems. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.127401