290 research outputs found
Rashba splitting of 100 meV in Au-intercalated graphene on SiC
Intercalation of Au can produce giant Rashba-type spin-orbit splittings in
graphene but this has not yet been achieved on a semiconductor substrate. For
graphene/SiC(0001), Au intercalation yields two phases with different doping.
Here, we report the preparation of an almost pure p-type graphene phase after
Au intercalation. We observe a 100 meV Rashba-type spin-orbit splitting at 0.9
eV binding energy. We show that this giant splitting is due to hybridization
and much more limited in energy and momentum space than for Au-intercalated
graphene on Ni
Suppression of electron scattering resonances in graphene by quantum dots
Transmission of low-energetic electrons through two-dimensional materials
leads to unique scattering resonances. These resonances contribute to
photoemission from occupied bands where they appear as strongly dispersive
features of suppressed photoelectron intensity. Using angle-resolved
photoemission we have systematically studied scattering resonances in epitaxial
graphene grown on the chemically differing substrates Ir(111), Bi/Ir, Ni(111)
as well as in graphene/Ir(111) nanopatterned with a superlattice of uniform Ir
quantum dots. While the strength of the chemical interaction with the substrate
has almost no effect on the dispersion of the scattering resonances, their
energy can be controlled by the magnitude of charge transfer from/to graphene.
At the same time, a superlattice of small quantum dots deposited on graphene
eliminates the resonances completely. We ascribe this effect to a
nanodot-induced buckling of graphene and its local rehybridization from
sp to sp towards a three-dimensional structure. Our results suggest
nanopatterning as a prospective tool for tuning optoelectronic properties of
two-dimensional materials with graphene-like structure.Comment: The following article has been submitted to Applied Physics Letters.
If it is published, it will be found online at http://apl.aip.or
Laser-induced persistent photovoltage on the surface of a ternary topological insulator at room temperature
Using time- and angle-resolved photoemission, we investigate the ultrafast
response of excited electrons in the ternary topological insulator (BiSb)Te to fs-infrared pulses. We demonstrate that at the
critical concentration =0.55, where the system becomes bulk insulating, a
surface voltage can be driven at room temperature through the topological
surface state solely by optical means. We further show that such a photovoltage
persists over a time scale that exceeds 6 s, i.e, much longer than
the characteristic relaxation times of bulk states. We attribute the origin of
the photovoltage to a laser-induced band-bending effect which emerges near the
surface region on ultrafast time scales. The photovoltage is also accompanied
by a remarkable increase in the relaxation times of excited states as compared
to undoped topological insulators. Our findings are relevant in the context of
applications of topological surface states in future optical devices.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Graphene for spintronics: giant Rashba splitting due to hybridization with Au
Graphene in spintronics has so far primarily meant spin current leads of high
performance because the intrinsic spin-orbit coupling of its pi-electrons is
very weak. If a large spin-orbit coupling could be created by a proximity
effect, the material could also form active elements of a spintronic device
such as the Das-Datta spin field-effect transistor, however, metal interfaces
often compromise the band dispersion of massless Dirac fermions. Our
measurements show that Au intercalation at the graphene-Ni interface creates a
giant spin-orbit splitting (~100 meV) in the graphene Dirac cone up to the
Fermi energy. Photoelectron spectroscopy reveals hybridization with Au-5d
states as the source for the giant spin-orbit splitting. An ab initio model of
the system shows a Rashba-split dispersion with the analytically predicted
gapless band topology around the Dirac point of graphene and indicates that a
sharp graphene-Au interface at equilibrium distance will account for only ~10
meV spin-orbit splitting. The ab initio calculations suggest an enhancement due
to Au atoms that get closer to the graphene and do not violate the sublattice
symmetry.Comment: 16 pages (3 figures) + supplementary information 16 pages (14
figures
Non-monotonic pseudo-gap in high-Tc cuprates
The mechanism of high temperature superconductivity is not resolved for so
long because the normal state of cuprates is not yet understood. Here we show
that the normal state pseudo-gap exhibits an unexpected non-monotonic
temperature dependence, which rules out the possibility to describe it by a
single mechanism such as superconducting phase fluctuations. Moreover, this
behaviour, being remarkably similar to the behaviour of the charge ordering gap
in the transition-metal dichalcogenides, completes the correspondence between
these two classes of compounds: the cuprates in the PG state and the
dichalcogenides in the incommensurate charge ordering state reveal virtually
identical spectra of one-particle excitations as function of energy, momentum
and temperature. These results suggest that the normal state pseudo-gap, which
was considered to be very peculiar to cuprates, seems to be a general complex
phenomenon for 2D metals. This may not only help to clarify the normal state
electronic structure of 2D metals but also provide new insight into electronic
properties of 2D solids where the metal-insulator and metal-superconductor
transitions are considered on similar basis as instabilities of particle-hole
and particle-particle interaction, respectively
Ultrafast spin polarization control of Dirac fermions in topological insulators
Three-dimensional topological insulators (TIs) are characterized by
spin-polarized Dirac-cone surface states that are protected from backscattering
by time-reversal symmetry. Control of the spin polarization of topological
surface states (TSSs) using femtosecond light pulses opens novel perspectives
for the generation and manipulation of dissipationless surface spin currents on
ultrafast timescales. Using time-, spin-, and angle-resolved spectroscopy, we
directly monitor for the first time the ultrafast response of the spin
polarization of photoexcited TSSs to circularly-polarized femtosecond pulses of
infrared light. We achieve all-optical switching of the transient out-of-plane
spin polarization, which relaxes in about 1.2 ps. Our observations establish
the feasibility of ultrafast optical control of spin-polarized Dirac fermions
in TIs and pave the way for novel optospintronic applications at ultimate
speeds.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure
Band Renormalization of Blue Phosphorus on Au 111
Most recently, theoretical calculations predicted the stability of a novel two dimensional phosphorus honeycomb lattice named blue phosphorus. Here, we report on the growth of blue phosphorus on Au 111 and unravel its structural details using diffraction, microscopy and theoretical calculations. Most importantly, by utilizing angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy we identify its momentum resolved electronic structure. We find that Au 111 breaks the sublattice symmetry of blue phosphorus leading to an orbital dependent band renormalization upon the formation of a 4 4 superstructure. Notably, the semiconducting two dimensional phosphorus realizes its valence band maximum at 0.9 eV binding energy, however, shifted in momentum space due to the substrate induced band renormalizatio
Probing two topological surface bands of Sb2Te3 by spin-polarized photoemission spectroscopy
Using high resolution spin- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we
map the electronic structure and spin texture of the surface states of the
topological insulator Sb2Te3. In combination with density functional
calculations (DFT), we directly show that Sb2Te3 exhibits a partially occupied,
single spin-Dirac cone around the Fermi energy, which is topologically
protected. DFT obtains a spin polarization of the occupied Dirac cone states of
80-90%, which is in reasonable agreement with the experimental data after
careful background subtraction. Furthermore, we observe a strongly spin-orbit
split surface band at lower energy. This state is found at 0.8eV below the
Fermi level at the gamma-point, disperses upwards, and disappears at about
0.4eV below the Fermi level into two different bulk bands. Along the gamma-K
direction, the band is located within a spin-orbit gap. According to an
argument given by Pendry and Gurman in 1975, such a gap must contain a surface
state, if it is located away from the high symmetry points of the Brillouin
zone. Thus, the novel spin-split state is protected by symmetry, too.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figure
Angle-resolved and core-level photoemission study of interfacing the topological insulator Bi1.5Sb0.5Te1.7Se1.3 with Ag, Nb and Fe
Interfaces between a bulk-insulating topological insulator (TI) and metallic
adatoms have been studied using high-resolution, angle-resolved and core-level
photoemission. Fe, Nb and Ag were evaporated onto Bi1.5Sb0.5Te1.7Se1.3 (BSTS)
surfaces both at room temperature and 38K. The coverage- and
temperature-dependence of the adsorption and interfacial formation process have
been investigated, highlighting the effects of the overlayer growth on the
occupied electronic structure of the TI. For all coverages at room temperature
and for those equivalent to less than 0.1 monolayer at low temperature all
three metals lead to a downward shift of the TI's bands with respect to the
Fermi level. At room temperature Ag appears to intercalate efficiently into the
van der Waals gap of BSTS, accompanied by low-level substitution of the Te/Se
atoms of the termination layer of the crystal. This Te/Se substitution with
silver increases significantly for low temperature adsorption, and can even
dominate the electrostatic environment of the Bi/Sb atoms in the BSTS
near-surface region. On the other hand, Fe and Nb evaporants remain close to
the termination layer of the crystal. On room temperature deposition, they
initially substitute isoelectronically for Bi as a function of coverage, before
substituting for Te/Se atoms. For low temperature deposition, Fe and Nb are too
immobile for substitution processes and show a behaviour consistent with
clustering on the surface. For both Ag and Fe/Nb, these differing adsorption
pathways leads to the qualitatively similar and remarkable behavior for low
temperature deposition that the chemical potential first moves upward (n-type
dopant behavior) and then downward (p-type behavior) on increasing coverage.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures. In our Phys. Rev. B manuscript an error was made
in formulating the last sentence of the abstract that, unfortunately, was
missed in the page proofs. Version 2 on arxiv has the correct formulation of
this sentenc
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