Observation of surface states on heavily indium doped SnTe(111), a superconducting topological crystalline insulator

Abstract

The topological crystalline insulator tin telluride is known to host superconductivity when doped with indium (Sn${}_{1-x}$In${}_x$Te), and for low indium contents ($x=0.04$) it is known that the topological surface states are preserved. Here we present the growth, characterization and angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy analysis of samples with much heavier In doping (up to $x\approx 0.4$), a regime where the superconducting temperature is increased nearly fourfold. We demonstrate that despite strong p-type doping, Dirac-like surface states persist.