Electron-Phonon Coupling and Surface Debye Temperature of Bi${}_2$Te${}_3$(111) from Helium Atom Scattering

Abstract

We have studied the topological insulator Bi${}_2$Te${}_3$(111) by means of helium atom scattering. The average electron-phonon coupling $\lambda$ of Bi${}_2$Te${}_3$(111) is determined by adapting a recently developed quantum-theoretical derivation of the helium scattering probabilities to the case of degenerate semiconductors. Based on the Debye-Waller attenuation of the elastic diffraction peaks of Bi${}_2$Te${}_3$(111), measured at surface temperatures between $110~\mbox{K}$ and $355~\mbox{K}$, we find $\lambda$ to be in the range of $0.04-0.11$. This method allows to extract a correctly averaged $\lambda$ and to address the discrepancy between previous studies. The relatively modest value of $\lambda$ is not surprising even though some individual phonons may provide a larger electron-phonon interaction. Furthermore, the surface Debye temperature of Bi${}_2$Te${}_3$(111) is determined as ${\rm Θ}_D = (81\pm6)~\mbox{K}$. The electronic surface corrugation was analysed based on close-coupling calculations. By using a corrugated Morse potential a peak-to-peak corrugation of 9% of the lattice constant is obtained.

9 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Electron-phonon Coupling on the Surface of the Topological Insulator Bi2Se3: Determined from Surface Phonon Dispersion Measurements
• Distinguishing bulk and surface electron-phonon coupling in the topological insulator Bi2Se3 using time-resolved photoemission spectroscopy
• Electron-phonon scattering in topological insulators
• Bulk Band Structure of Bi${}_2$Te${}_3$

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