Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• She, Jian-Huang
• Fransson, Jonas
• Bishop, A R
• Balatsky, Alexander V

Titel

Inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy for topological insulators

Ist Teil von

• Physical review letters, 2013, Vol.110 (2), p.026802-026802, Article 026802

Ort / Verlag

United States: American Physical Society

Erscheinungsjahr

2013

Quelle

American Physical Society Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy is a powerful spectroscopy that allows one to investigate the nature of local excitations and energy transfer in the system of interest. We study inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy for topological insulators and investigate the role of inelastic scattering on the Dirac node states on the surface of topological insulators. Local inelastic scattering is shown to significantly modify the Dirac node spectrum. In the weak coupling limit, peaks and steps are induced in second derivative d2I/dV2. In the strong coupling limit, the local negative-U centers are formed at impurity sites, and the Dirac cone structure is fully destroyed locally. At intermediate coupling, resonance peaks emerge. We map out the evolution of the resonance peaks from weak to strong coupling, which interpolate nicely between the two limits. There is a sudden qualitative change of behavior at intermediate coupling, indicating the possible existence of a local quantum phase transition. We also find that, even for a simple local phonon mode, the inherent coupling of spin and orbital degrees in topological insulators leads to the spin-polarized texture in inelastic Friedel oscillations induced by the local mode.