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Register a new userObservation of Chiral Surface Excitons in a Topological Insulator Bi$_2$Se$_3$
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The protected electron states at the boundaries or on the surfaces of topological insulators (TIs) have been the subject of intense theoretical and experimental investigations. Such states are enforced by very strong spin-orbit interaction in solids composed of heavy elements. Here, we study the composite particles -- chiral excitons -- formed by the Coulomb attraction between electrons and holes residing on the surface of an archetypical three-dimensional topological insulator (TI), Bi$_2$Se$_3$. Photoluminescence (PL) emission arising due to recombination of excitons in conventional semiconductors is usually unpolarized because of scattering by phonons and other degrees of freedom during exciton thermalization. On the contrary, we observe almost perfectly polarization-preserving PL emission from chiral excitons. We demonstrate that the chiral excitons can be optically oriented with circularly polarized light in a broad range of excitation energies, even when the latter deviate from the (apparent) optical band gap by hundreds of meVs, and that the orientation remains preserved even at room temperature. Based on the dependences of the PL spectra on the energy and polarization of incident photons, we propose that chiral excitons are made from massive holes and massless (Dirac) electrons, both with chiral spin textures enforced by strong spin-orbit coupling. A theoretical model based on such proposal describes quantitatively the experimental observations. The optical orientation of composite particles, the chiral excitons, emerges as a general result of strong spin-orbit coupling in a 2D electron system. Our findings can potentially expand applications of TIs in photonics and optoelectronics.
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We perform ab-initio calculations on Bi$_mathrm{{Se}}$ antisite defects in the surface of Bi$_2$Se$_3$, finding strong low-energy defect resonances with a spontaneous ferromagnetism, fixed to an out-of-plane orientation due to an exceptional large magnetic anisotropy energy. For antisite defects in the surface layer, we find semi-itinerant ferromagnetism and strong hybridization with the Dirac surface state, generating a finite energy gap. For deeper lying defects, such hybridization is largely absent, the magnetic moments becomes more localized, and no energy gap is present.
The influence of individual impurities of Fe on the electronic properties of topological insulator Bi$_2$Se$_3$ is studied by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy. The microscope tip is used in order to remotely charge/discharge Fe impurities. The charging process is shown to depend on the impurity location in the crystallographic unit cell, on the presence of other Fe impurities in the close vicinity, as well as on the overall doping level of the crystal. We present a qualitative explanation of the observed phenomena in terms of tip-induced local band bending. Our observations evidence that the specific impurity neighborhood and the position of the Fermi energy with respect to the Dirac point and bulk bands have both to be taken into account when considering the electron scattering on the disorder in topological insulators.
Scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy have been used to investigate the femtosecond dynamics of Dirac fermions in the topological insulator Bi$_2$Se$_3$ ultrathin films. At two-dimensional limit, bulk electrons becomes quantized and the quantization can be controlled by film thickness at single quintuple layer level. By studying the spatial decay of standing waves (quasiparticle interference patterns) off steps, we measure directly the energy and film thickness dependence of phase relaxation length $l_{phi}$ and inelastic scattering lifetime $tau$ of topological surface-state electrons. We find that $tau$ exhibits a remarkable $(E-E_F)^{-2}$ energy dependence and increases with film thickness. We show that the features revealed are typical for electron-electron scattering between surface and bulk states.
We report the observation of quantum Hall effect (QHE) in a Bi$_2$Se$_3$ single crystal having carrier concentration ($n$) $sim1.13times10^{19}$cm$^{-3}$, three dimensional Fermi surface and bulk transport characteristics. The plateaus in Hall resistivity coincide with minima of Shubnikov de Haas oscillations in resistivity. Our results demonstrate that the presence of perfect two dimensional transport is not an essential condition for QHE in Bi$_2$Se$_3$. The results of high resolution x-ray diffraction (HRXRD), energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and residual resistivity measurements show the presence of enhanced crystalline defects and microstrain. We propose that the formation of localized state at the edge of each Landau level due to resonance between the bulk and defect band of Bi$_2$Se$_3$ causes the quantum Hall effect.
Using circularly polarized light is an alternative to electronic ways for spin injection into materials. Spins are injected at a point of the light illumination, and then diffuse and spread radially due to the in-plane gradient of the spin density. This diffusion is converted into a circular charge current by the inverse spin Hall effect (ISHE). With shining the circularly polarized light at asymmetric parts of the sample, such as near edges, we detected this current as a helicity-dependent component in the photocurrent. We present a model for this ISHE based on the experimental results and the finite-element-method (FEM) simulation of the potential distribution induced by spin injection. Our model shows that the ISHE photocurrent generates an electric dipole at the edge of the sample, causing the measured charge current. The asymmetric light-illumination shown here is a simple way to inject and manipulate spins, opening up a door for novel spintronic devices.
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