Tunable Dirac interface states in topological superlattices

Abstract

Relativistic Dirac fermions are ubiquitous in condensed matter physics. Their mass is proportional to the material energy gap and the ability to control and tune the mass has become an essential tool to engineer quantum phenomena that mimic high energy particles and provide novel device functionalities. In topological insulator thin films, new states of matter can be generated by hybridizing the massless Dirac states that occur at material surfaces. In this work, we experimentally and theoretically introduce a platform where this hybridization can be continuously tuned: the Pb1-xSnxSe topological superlattice. In this system, topological Dirac states occur at the interfaces between a topological crystalline insulator Pb1-xSnxSe and a trivial insulator, realized in the form of topological quantum wells (TQW) epitaxially stacked on top of each other. Using magnetooptical transmission spectroscopy on high quality MBE grown Pb1-xSnxSe superlattices, we show that the penetration depth of the TQW interface states and therefore their Dirac mass is continuously tunable with temperature. This presents a new pathway to engineer the Dirac mass of topological systems and paves the way towards the realization of emergent quantum states of matter using Pb1-xSnxSe topological superlattices.

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Dirac parameters and topological phase diagram of Pb1-xSnxSe from magneto-spectroscopy
• Valley-Polarized quantum Hall phase in a strain-controlled Dirac system
• A Novel Ferroelectric Rashba Semiconductor
• Weak antilocalization beyond the fully diffusive regime in Pb1-xSnxSe topological quantum wells
• Interaction between interface and massive states in multivalley topological heterostructures
• Miniband engineering and topological phase transitions in topological - normal insulator superlattices
• Photon Energy Dependence of Kerr Rotation in Chalcogenide Superlattices
• Spontaneous Breaking of the SU(3) Flavor Symmetry in a Quantum Hall Valley Nematic