STM observation of the hinge-states of bismuth nanocrystals

Abstract

The recent application of topological quantum chemistry to rhombohedral bismuth established the non-trivial band structure of this material. This is a 2${}^{nd}$order topological insulator characterized by the presence of topology-imposed hinge-states. The spatial distribution of hinge-states and the possible presence of additional symmetry-protected surface-states is expected to depend on the crystal shape and symmetries. To explore this issue, we have grown bismuth nanocrystals in the tens of nanometers on the $(110)$ surface of InAs. By scanning tunneling spectroscopy, we mapped the local density of states on all facets and identified the presence of the hinge-states at the intersection of all facets. Our study confirm the classification of bulk bismuth as a 2${}^{nd}$order topological insulator. We propose that the ubiquitous presence of the hinge-states result from their tunnel-coupling across the nanometer-sized facets.

10 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (19)

• A topological Dirac insulator in a quantum spin Hall phase : Experimental observation of first strong topological insulator
• Topological Crystalline Insulators
• $(d-2)$-dimensional edge states of rotation symmetry protected topological states
• Surface States of the Topological Insulator Bi_{1-x}Sb_x
• Strong spin-orbit splitting on Bi surfaces
• Quantum Spin Hall Effect and Enhanced Magnetic Response by Spin-Orbit Coupling
• Finite size effects of helical edge states in HgTe/CdTe quantum wells
• One-dimensional Topological Edge States of Bismuth Bilayers
• Building Blocks of Topological Quantum Chemistry: Elementary Band Representations
• Topological Materials Discovery from Crystal Symmetry
• Stacked topological insulator built from bismuth-based graphene sheet analogues
• One-Dimensional Edge States with Giant Spin Splitting in a Bismuth Thin Film
• Evidence for Higher order topology in Bi and Bi${}_{0.92}$Sb${}_{0.08}$
• Superconducting parity effect across the Anderson limit
• $Z_2$ topology of bismuth
• Long-lived Andreev states as evidence for protected hinge modes in a bismuth nanoring Josephson junction
• A Systematic Investigation of the Coupling between One-Dimensional Edge States of a Topological Crystalline Insulator
• Edge States of α-Bismuthene Nanostructures
• Anisotropic Penetration Depths of Corner States in a Higher-Order Topological Insulator

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Creation and Manipulation of Higher-Order Topological States by Altermagnets
• Higher-order Topological States in Chiral Split Magnons of Honeycomb Altermagnets
• Tunable corner states in topological insulators with long-range hoppings and diverse shapes
• Non-Hermitian higher-order topological insulators enabled by altermagnet engineering