Spin-orbit scattering visualized in quasiparticle interference

Abstract

In the presence of spin-orbit coupling, electron scattering off impurities depends on both spin and orbital angular momentum of electrons -- spin-orbit scattering. Although some transport properties are subject to spin-orbit scattering, experimental techniques directly accessible to this effect are limited. Here we show that a signature of spin-orbit scattering manifests itself in quasiparticle interference (QPI) imaged by spectroscopic-imaging scanning tunneling microscopy. The experimental data of a polar semiconductor BiTeI are well reproduced by numerical simulations with the $T$-matrix formalism that include not only scalar scattering normally adopted but also spin-orbit scattering stronger than scalar scattering. To accelerate the simulations, we extend the standard efficient method of QPI calculation for momentum-independent scattering to be applicable even for spin-orbit scattering. We further identify a selection rule that makes spin-orbit scattering visible in the QPI pattern. These results demonstrate that spin-orbit scattering can exert predominant influence on QPI patterns and thus suggest that QPI measurement is available to detect spin-orbit scattering.

21 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (22)

• Anomalous Hall effect
• Experimental demonstration of the topological surface states protected by the time-reversal symmetry
• An Intrinsic Bond-Centered Electronic Glass with Unidirectional Domains in Underdoped Cuprates
• Imaging Quasiparticle Interference in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+d
• Spatial Fluctuations of Helical Dirac Fermions on the Surface of Topological Insulators
• Emergence of non-centrosymmetric topological insulating phase in BiTeI under pressure
• Origin of giant bulk Rashba splitting: Application to BiTeI
• Quasiparticle interference of the Fermi arcs and surface-bulk connectivity of a Weyl semimetal
• Giant ambipolar Rashba effect in a semiconductor: BiTeI
• Strongly spin-orbit coupled two-dimensional electron gas emerging near the surface of polar semiconductors
• Quasiparticle Chirality in Epitaxial Graphene Probed at the Nanometer Scale
• The role of the spin in quasiparticle interference
• Surface and bulk Fermiology and band dispersion in non-centrosymmetric BiTeI
• Atomic Scale Visualization of Quantum Interference on a Weyl Semimetal Surface by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy/Spectroscopy
• Quasiparticle scattering in two dimensional helical liquid
• Quasiparticle Interference on the Surface of the Topological Insulator Bi${}_2$Te${}_3$
• Mapping the unconventional orbital texture in topological crystalline insulators
• Quasiparticle Interference, quasiparticle interactions and the origin of the charge density-wave in 2H-NbSe${}_2$
• Three-dimensional bulk band dispersion in polar BiTeI with giant Rashba-type spin splitting
• Quasiparticle interference from magnetic impurities
• Atomic and Electronic Structure of a Rashba $p$-$n$ Junction at the BiTeI Surface
• Imaging ambipolar two-dimensional carriers induced by the spontaneous electric polarization of a polar semiconductor BiTeI

Cited by in corpus (19)

• Symmetry-forbidden intervalley scattering by atomic defects in monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides
• Chiral spin texture in the charge-density-wave phase of the correlated metallic Pb/Si(111) monolayer
• Direct Visualization of Native Defects in Graphite and Their Effect on the Electronic Properties of Bernal-Stacked Bilayer Graphene
• Bulk and surface spin conductivity in topological insulators with hexagonal warping
• Quasiparticle Interference in ZrSiS - Strongly Band-Selective Scattering Depending on Impurity Lattice Site
• Quasiparticle interference and quantum confinement in a correlated Rashba spin-split 2D electron liquid
• Gapped Dirac cones and spin texture in thin film topological insulator
• Orbital-dependent quasiparticle scattering interference in 3R-NbS2
• Quasiparticle interference in altermagnets
• Correlation-driven electronic nematicity in the Dirac semimetal BaNiS2
• Superconductivity near the saddle point in the two-dimensional Rashba system Si(111)-$\sqrt{3}\times \sqrt{3}$-(Tl,Pb)
• Quasiparticle interference in doped topological insulators with nematic superconductivity
• Local and global patterns in quasiparticle interference: a reduced response function approach
• Non-orthogonal Spin-Momentum Locking
• Surface step states and Majorana end states in profiled topological insulator thin films
• Topological surface states hybridized with bulk states of Bi-doped PbSb2Te4 revealed in quasiparticle interference
• Tomographic mapping of the hidden dimension in quasi-particle interference
• Intermediate band analysis in Green's functions calculations of quasiparticle interference
• Friedel oscillations in 2D electron gas from spin-orbit interaction in a parallel magnetic field