  Surface alloying is shown to produce electronic states with a very large
spin-splitting. We discuss the long range ordered bismuth/silver(111) surface
alloy where an energy bands separation of up to one eV is achieved. Such strong
spin-splitting enables angular resolved photoemission spectroscopy to directly
observe the region close to the band edge, where the density of states shows
quasi-one dimensional behavior. The associated singularity in the local density
of states has been measured by low temperature scanning tunneling spectroscopy.
The implications of this new class of materials for potential spintronics
applications as well as fundamental issues are discussed.
