Observation of a topological insulator Dirac cone reshaped by non-magnetic impurity resonance
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Abstract
Abstract The massless Dirac electrons found at topological insulator surfaces are thought to be influenced very little by weak, non-magnetic disorder. However, a resonance effect of strongly perturbing non-magnetic impurities has been theoretically predicted to change the dispersion and physical nature of low-energy quasiparticles, resulting in unique particle-like states that lack microscopic translational symmetry. Here we report the direct observation of impurities reshaping the surface Dirac cone of the model three-dimensional topological insulator bismuth selenide. A pronounced kink-like dispersion feature is observed in disorder-enriched samples, and found to be closely associated with the anomaly caused by impurity resonance in the surface state density of states, as observed by dichroic angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. The experimental observation of these features, which closely resemble theoretical predictions, has significant implications for the properties of topological Dirac cones in applied scenarios that commonly feature point-defect disorder at surfaces or interfaces.
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Research context
OpenAlex topics: Topological Materials and Phenomena · Quantum optics and atomic interactions · Photorefractive and Nonlinear Optics
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
References (47)
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