English

Robust weak antilocalization due to spin-orbital entanglement in Dirac material Sr$_3$SnO

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2020-03-05 v2

Abstract

The presence of both inversion (PP) and time-reversal (TT) symmetries in solids leads to a well-known double degeneracy of the electronic bands (Kramers degeneracy). When the degeneracy is lifted, spin textures can be directly observed in momentum space, as in topological insulators or in strong Rashba materials. The existence of spin textures with Kramers degeneracy, however, is very difficult to observe directly. Here, we use quantum interference measurements combined with first-principle band structure calculations to provide evidence for the existence of hidden entanglement between spin and momentum in the antiperovskite-type 3D Dirac material Sr3_3SnO. We find robust weak antilocalization (WAL) independent of the position of EFE_\mathrm{F}. The observed WAL signal at low doping is fitted using a single interference channel, which implies that the different Dirac valleys are mixed by disorder. Notably, this mixing does not suppress WAL, suggesting contrasting interference physics compared to graphene. We identify scattering among axially spin-momentum locked states as a key process that leads to a spin-orbital entanglement, giving rise to robust WAL. Our work sheds light on the subtle role of spin and pseudospin, when both could contribute to the same quantum effect.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1806.08712,
  title  = {Robust weak antilocalization due to spin-orbital entanglement in Dirac material Sr$_3$SnO},
  author = {H. Nakamura and D. Huang and J. Merz and E. Khalaf and P. Ostrovsky and A. Yaresko and D. Samal and H. Takagi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1806.08712},
  year   = {2020}
}