Circular dichroism in angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy of topological insulators

Abstract

Topological insulators are a new phase of matter that exhibits exotic surface electronic properties. Determining the spin texture of this class of material is of paramount importance for both fundamental understanding of its topological order and future spin-based applications. In this article, we review the recent experimental and theoretical studies on the differential coupling of left- versus right-circularly polarized light to the topological surface states in angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. These studies have shown that the polarization of light and the experimental geometry plays a very important role in both photocurrent intensity and spin polarization of photoelectrons emitted from the topological surface states. A general photoemission matrix element calculation with spin-orbit coupling can quantitatively explain the observations and is also applicable to topologically trivial systems. These experimental and theoretical investigations suggest that optical excitation with circularly polarized light is a promising route towards mapping the spin-orbit texture and manipulating the spin orientation in topological and other spin-orbit coupled materials.

submitted to Phys. Status Solidi RRL

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• Spin- and angle-resolved photoemission on topological materials
• Angle-resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy Study on the Surface States of the Correlated Topological Insulator YbB6
• The momentum and photon energy dependence of the circular dichroic photoemission in the bulk Rashba semiconductors BiTeX (X = I, Br, Cl)
• Observation of Dirac surface states in the hexagonal PtBi2, a possible origin of the linear magnetoresistance
• Helicity dependent photovoltaic effect in Bi2Se3 under normal incident light
• Photoemission Circular Dichroism and Spin Polarization of the Topological Surface States in Ultrathin Bi2Te3 Films
• A first-principles investigation of band inversion in topologically nontrivial Na2AgX (X= As, Sb and Bi) full Heusler compounds