1212.1783 (B. M. Wojek et al.)

Spin-polarized (001) surface states of the topological crystalline
insulator Pb_{0.73}Sn_{0.27}Se    [PDF]

B. M. Wojek, R. Buczko, S. Safaei, P. Dziawa, B. J. Kowalski, M. H. Berntsen, T. Balasubramanian, M. Leandersson, A. Szczerbakow, P. Kacman, T. Story, O. Tjernberg

We study the nature of (001) surface states in Pb_{0.73}Sn_{0.27}Se in the newly discovered topological-crystalline-insulator (TCI) phase as well as the corresponding topologically trivial state above the band-gap-inversion temperature. Our calculations predict not only metallic surface states with a nontrivial chiral spin structure for the TCI case, but also nonmetallic (gapped) surface states with nonzero spin polarization when the system is a normal insulator. For both phases, angle- and spin-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy measurements provide conclusive evidence for the formation of these (001) surface states in Pb_{0.73}Sn_{0.27}Se, as well as for their chiral spin structure.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1212.1783