Abrupt rotation of the Rashba spin to the direction perpendicular to the surface.

The polarization vector of the Rashba spin, which must be parallel to the two-dimensional (2D) plane in an ideal system, is found to change abruptly and definitely to the direction perpendicular to the surface at the K point of the Brillouin zone of a real hexagonal system, the Tl/Si(111)-(1x1) surface. This finding obtained experimentally by angle-resolved and spin-resolved photoemission measurements is fully confirmed by a first-principles theoretical calculation. We found that the abrupt rotation of the Rashba spin is simply understood by the 2D symmetry of the hexagonal structure.