Hidden spin-orbital texture at the [Formula: see text]-located valence band maximum of a transition metal dichalcogenide semiconductor.

Finding stimuli capable of driving an imbalance of spin-polarised electrons within a solid is the central challenge in the development of spintronic devices. However, without the aid of magnetism, routes towards this goal are highly constrained with only a few suitable pairings of compounds and driving mechanisms found to date. Here, through spin- and angle-resolved photoemission along with density functional theory, we establish how the p-derived bulk valence bands of semiconducting 1T-HfSe possess a local, ground-state spin texture spatially confined within each Se-sublayer due to strong sublayer-localised electric dipoles orientated along the c-axis.