Search Results

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Item
    Multiple Dirac cones at the surface of the topological metal LaBi
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2017) Nayak, Jayita; Martinsson, Bengt G.; Kumar, Nitesh; Shekhar, Chandra; Singh, Sanjay; Fink, Jörg; Rienks, Emile E.D.; Fecher, Gerhard H.; Parkin, Stuart S.P.; Yan, Binghai; Felser, Claudia
    The rare-earth monopnictide LaBi exhibits exotic magneto-transport properties, including an extremely large and anisotropic magnetoresistance. Experimental evidence for topological surface states is still missing although band inversions have been postulated to induce a topological phase in LaBi. In this work, we have revealed the existence of surface states of LaBi through the observation of three Dirac cones: two coexist at the corners and one appears at the centre of the Brillouin zone, by employing angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy in conjunction with ab initio calculations. The odd number of surface Dirac cones is a direct consequence of the odd number of band inversions in the bulk band structure, thereby proving that LaBi is a topological, compensated semimetal, which is equivalent to a time-reversal invariant topological insulator. Our findings provide insight into the topological surface states of LaBi’s semi-metallicity and related magneto-transport properties.
  • Item
    Quasi one dimensional dirac electrons on the surface of Ru2 Sn3
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2014) Gibson, Q.D.; Evtushinsky, D.; Yaresko, A.N.; Zabolotnyy, V.B.; Ali, Mazhar N.; Fuccillo, M.K.; Van den Brink, J.; Büchner, B.; Cava, R.J.; Borisenko, S.V.
    We present an ARPES study of the surface states of Ru2Sn3, a new type of a strong 3D topological insulator (TI). In contrast to currently known 3D TIs, which display two-dimensional Dirac cones with linear isotropic dispersions crossing through one point in the surface Brillouin Zone (SBZ), the surface states on Ru2Sn3 are highly anisotropic, displaying an almost flat dispersion along certain high-symmetry directions. This results in quasi-one dimensional (1D) Dirac electronic states throughout the SBZ that we argue are inherited from features in the bulk electronic structure of Ru2Sn3 where the bulk conduction bands are highly anisotropic. Unlike previous experimentally characterized TIs, the topological surface states of Ru2Sn3 are the result of a d-p band inversion rather than an s-p band inversion. The observed surface states are the topological equivalent to a single 2D Dirac cone at the surface Brillouin zone.
  • Item
    Correlation between topological band character and chemical bonding in a Bi14Rh3I9-based family of insulators
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2016) Rasche, Bertold; Isaeva, Anna; Ruck, Michael; Koepernik, Klaus; Richter, Manuel; van den Brink, Jeroen
    Recently the presence of topologically protected edge-states in Bi14Rh3I9 was confirmed by scanning tunnelling microscopy consolidating this compound as a weak 3D topological insulator (TI). Here, we present a density-functional-theory-based study on a family of TIs derived from the Bi14Rh3I9 parent structure via substitution of Ru, Pd, Os, Ir and Pt for Rh. Comparative analysis of the band-structures throughout the entire series is done by means of a unified minimalistic tight-binding model that evinces strong similarity between the quantum-spin-Hall (QSH) layer in Bi14Rh3I9 and graphene in terms of -molecular orbitals. Topologically non-trivial energy gaps are found for the Ir-, Rh-, Pt- and Pd-based systems, whereas the Os- and Ru-systems remain trivial. Furthermore, the energy position of the metal -band centre is identified as the parameter which governs the evolution of the topological character of the band structure through the whole family of TIs. The -band position is shown to correlate with the chemical bonding within the QSH layers, thus revealing how the chemical nature of the constituents affects the topological band character.
  • Item
    Topological signatures in the electronic structure of graphene spirals
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2013) Avdoshenko, Stas M.; Koskinen, Pekka; Sevinçli, Haldun; Popov, Alexey A.; Rocha, Claudia G.
    Topology is familiar mostly from mathematics, but also natural sciences have found its concepts useful. Those concepts have been used to explain several natural phenomena in biology and physics, and they are particularly relevant for the electronic structure description of topological insulators and graphene systems. Here, we introduce topologically distinct graphene forms - graphene spirals - and employ density-functional theory to investigate their geometric and electronic properties. We found that the spiral topology gives rise to an intrinsic Rashba spin-orbit splitting. Through a Hamiltonian constrained by space curvature, graphene spirals have topologically protected states due to time-reversal symmetry. In addition, we argue that the synthesis of such graphene spirals is feasible and can be achieved through advanced bottom-up experimental routes that we indicate in this work.