Inelastic Helium Atom Scattering from Sb2Te3(111): Phonon Dispersion, Focusing Effects and Surfing

We present an experimental study of inelastic scattering processes on the (111) surface of the topological insulator Sb2Te3 using helium atom scattering. In contrast to other binary topological insulators such as Bi2Se3 and Bi2Te3, Sb2Te3 is much less studied and the as-grown Sb2Te3 sample turns out...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Ruckhofer, Adrian, Halbritter, Simon, Lund, Henriette E., Holt, Ann Julie U., Bianchi, Marco, Bremholm, Martin, Benedek, Giorgio, Hofmann, Philip, Ernst, Wolfgang E., Tamtoegl, Anton
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Institución:Universidad del País Vasco
Repositorio:Addi. Archivo Digital para la Docencia y la Investigación
OAI Identifier:oai:addi.ehu.eus:10810/51774
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10810/51774
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:topological insulators
surface-states
dynamics
spectroscopy
transport
Bi2Te3
Bi2Se3
Descripción
Sumario:We present an experimental study of inelastic scattering processes on the (111) surface of the topological insulator Sb2Te3 using helium atom scattering. In contrast to other binary topological insulators such as Bi2Se3 and Bi2Te3, Sb2Te3 is much less studied and the as-grown Sb2Te3 sample turns out to be p-doped, with the Fermi-level located below the Dirac-point as confirmed by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. We report the surface phonon dispersion along both high symmetry directions in the energy region below 11 meV, where the Rayleigh mode exhibits the strongest intensity. The experimental data is compared with a study based on density functional perturbation theory calculations, providing good agreement except for a set of additional peculiar inelastic events below the Rayleigh mode. In addition, an analysis of angular scans with respect to a number of additional inelastic events is presented, including resonance enhancement, kinematical focusing, focused inelastic resonance and surfing. In the latter case, phonon-assisted adsorption of the incident helium atom gives rise to a bound state where the helium atom rides the created Rayleigh wave.