Unusual surface states associated with the PT-symmetry breaking and antiferromagnetic band folding in NdSb

Abstract

We have performed micro-focused angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy on NdSb which exhibits the type-I antiferromagnetism below TN = 16 K. We succeeded in selectively observing the band structure for all three types of single-q antiferromagnetic (AF) domains at the surface. We found that two of the three surfaces whose AF-ordering vector lies within the surface plane commonly show twofold symmetric surface states (SSs) around the bulk-band edges, whereas the other surface with an out-of-plane AF-ordering vector displays fourfold symmetric shallow electronlike SS at the Brillouin-zone center. We suggest that these SSs commonly originate from the combination of the PT (space-inversion and time-reversal) symmetry breaking at the surface and the band folding due to the AF order. The present results pave a pathway toward understanding the relationship between the symmetry and the surface electronic states in antiferromagnets.

23 pages, 7 figures

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Antiferromagnetic topological insulator with selectively gapped Dirac cones
• Observation of spin splitting in the surface electronic structure of antiferromagnet NdBi
• Unexpected changes in the band structure within AFM1 state of CeBi
• Long-range magnetic order induced surface state in GdBi and DyBi
• Unconventional band splitting of CeSb in the devil's staircase transition
• Universal Role of Combined Symmetry for the Protection of the Dirac Cone in Antiferromagnetic Topological Insulators