Quasiparticle scattering from topological crystalline insulator SnTe (001) surface states

Abstract

Recently, the topological classification of electronic states has been extended to a new class of matter known as topological crystalline insulators. Similar to topological insulators, topological crystalline insulators also have spin-momentum locked surface states; but they only exist on specific crystal planes that are protected by crystal reflection symmetry. Here, we report an ultra-low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy study on topological crystalline insulator SnTe nanoplates grown by molecular beam epitaxy. We observed quasiparticle interference patterns on the SnTe (001) surface that can be interpreted in terms of electron scattering from the four Fermi pockets of the topological crystalline insulator surface states in the first surface Brillouin zone. A quantitative analysis of the energy dispersion of the quasiparticle interference intensity shows two high energy features related to the crossing point beyond the Lifshitz transition when the two neighboring low energy surface bands near the point merge. A comparison between the experimental and computed quasiparticle interference patterns reveals possible spin texture of the surface states.

References in corpus (22)

• Topological Insulators
• Topological insulators and superconductors
• Topological Crystalline Insulators
• A real-space grid implementation of the Projector Augmented Wave method
• Topological Crystalline Insulators in the SnTe Material Class
• Topological Surface States Protected From Backscattering by Chiral Spin Texture
• Experimental realization of a topological crystalline insulator in SnTe
• Topological crystalline insulator states in Pb(1-x)Sn(x)Se
• Aharonov-Bohm interference in topological insulator nanoribbons
• A topological crystalline insulator (TCI) phase via topological phase transition and crystalline mirror symmetry
• Imaging Quasiparticle Interference in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+d
• Josephson supercurrent through a topological insulator surface state
• Observation of Dirac node formation and mass acquisition in a topological crystalline insulator
• Surface States of Topological Crystalline Insulators in IV-VI Semiconductors
• Tunability of the k-space Location of the Dirac Cones in the Topological Crystalline Insulator Pb1-xSnxTe
• Observation of the superconducting proximity effect and possible evidence for Pearl vortices in a candidate topological insulator
• Topological Surface Transport in Epitaxial SnTe Thin Films Grown on Bi2Te3
• Role of pseudospin in quasiparticle interferences in epitaxial graphene probed by high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy
• Growth and Characterization of Hybrid Insulating Ferromagnet-Topological Insulator Heterostructure Devices
• Mapping the unconventional orbital texture in topological crystalline insulators
• Quasiparticle Interference on the Surface of Topological Crystalline Insulator Pb(1-x)Sn(x)Se
• Theory of quasiparticle interference in mirror symmetric 2D systems and its application to surface states of topological crystalline insulators

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Robust spin-polarized midgap states at step edges of topological crystalline insulators
• Strain engineering Dirac surface states in heteroepitaxial topological crystalline insulator thin films
• Atomic-scale visualization of quasiparticle interference on a type-II Weyl semimetal surface
• Universal signatures of Fermi arcs in quasiparticle interference on the surface of Weyl semimetals
• Quasiparticle interference on type-I and type-II Weyl semimetal surfaces: a review
• From atomic layer to the bulk: low-temperature atomistic structure, ferroelectric and electronic properties of SnTe films
• Defect-free SnTe topological crystalline insulator nanowires grown by molecular beam epitaxy on graphene
• CuTe chains on Cu(111) by deposition of 1/3 ML Te: atomic and electronic structure
• Suppression of the Spectral Weight of Topological Surface States on the Nanoscale via Local Symmetry Breaking
• Investigating the effect of temperature dependent many-body interactions on bulk electronic structures and the robust nature of (001) surface states of SnTe