Using high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, the electronic structure near the Fermi level and the topological property of the Bi(111) films grown on the Bi2Te3(111) substrate were studied. Very different from the bulk Bi, we found another surface band near the Mˉ point besides the two well-known surface bands on the Bi(111) surface. With this new surface band, the bulk valence band and the bulk conduction band of Bi can be connected by the surface states. Our band mapping revealed odd number of Fermi crossings of the surface bands, which provided a direct experimental signature that Bi(111) thin films of a certain thickness on the Bi2Te3(111) substrate can be topologically nontrivial in three dimension.
@article{arxiv.1506.04464,
title = {Topologically Nontrivial Bismuth(111) Thin Films Grown on Bi2Te3},
author = {Meng-Yu Yao and Fengfeng Zhu and Lin Miao and C. Q. Han and Fang Yang and D. D. Guan and C. L. Gao and Canhua Liu and Dong Qian and Jin-feng Jia},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1506.04464},
year = {2016}
}