English

Quasiparticle interference on the surface of Bi$_{\mathbf{2}}$Se$_{\mathbf{3}}$ terminated (PbSe)$_{\mathbf 5}$(Bi$_{\mathbf 2}$Se$_{\mathbf 3}$)$_{\mathbf 6}$

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2025-07-15 v2 Strongly Correlated Electrons

Abstract

Among the family of topological superconductors derived from {\BiSe}, Cux(PbSe)5(Bi2Se3)6\mathrm{Cu}_x(\mathrm{PbSe})_{5}(\mathrm{Bi}_{2}\mathrm{Se}_{3})_{6} is unique in its surface termination of a single quintuple layer (QL) of the topological insulator (TI) \BiSe{} on an ordinary insulator PbSe. Here, we report a combined scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and density functional theory (DFT) characterization of the cleaved surface of the parent compound (PbSe)5(Bi2Se3)6(\mathrm{PbSe})_{5}(\mathrm{Bi}_{2}\mathrm{Se}_{3})_{6} (PSBS). Interestingly, the potential disorder due to the random distribution of native defects is only Γ4 meV\Gamma \sim 4~\mathrm{meV}, comparable to the smallest reported for TIs. Performing high-resolution quasiparticle interference imaging (QPI) near the Fermi energy (EEF=1 eV to 0.6 eVE-E_\mathrm{F} = -1~\mathrm{eV}~\mathrm{to}~0.6~\mathrm{eV}) we reconstruct the dispersion relation of the dominant spectral feature and our ab initio calculations show that this surface feature originates from two bands with Rashba-like splitting due to strong spin-orbit coupling and inversion symmetry breaking. Moreover, only a small hexagonal distortion of the calculated Fermi surface is seen in the full momentum space distribution of the measured scattering data. Nevertheless, the scattering pattern at lower energies transforms into a flower-like shape with suppressed intensity along the ΓK\overline{\Gamma \mathrm{K}} direction. We show that this effect is not due to the forbidden backscattering in the spin-momentum locked surface state in Bi2_2Se3_3 but reflects the threefold symmetry of the scattering potential.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2502.02312,
  title  = {Quasiparticle interference on the surface of Bi$_{\mathbf{2}}$Se$_{\mathbf{3}}$ terminated (PbSe)$_{\mathbf 5}$(Bi$_{\mathbf 2}$Se$_{\mathbf 3}$)$_{\mathbf 6}$},
  author = {Mahasweta Bagchi and Philipp Rüßmann and Gustav Bihlmayer and Stefan Blügel and Yoichi Ando and Jens Brede},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.02312},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

13 pages with 13 figures. Submitted to Physical Review B