Quasiparticle Interference Imaging on SmB$_{6}$

ORAL

Abstract

Theoretical interest in SmB$_{6}$ as a possible topological Kondo insulator with spin-textured Dirac surface states spanning the bulk hybridization gap has been well supported by recent transport, quantum oscillation, and spin-resolved ARPES experiments. However, the influence of surface reconstruction and polarization on the observed dispersion remains unclear. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS) enable simultaneous measurement of local real- and momentum-space structure through quasiparticle interference (QPI) imaging. We use QPI imaging to detect and measure the dispersion of states near the hybridization gap on a non-polar, $2\times 1$ reconstructed surface of SmB$_{6}$. We compare these results with recent theoretical predictions to gain insight into the low energy excitations of SmB$_{6}$.

*This work was supported by the US National Science Foundation under the grant DMR-1410480.

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Authors

  • Harris Pirie

    • University of British Columbia, Harvard University

  • Yang He

    • Harvard University

  • Mohammad Hamidian

    • Harvard University, Cornell University

  • Michael Yee

    • Harvard University

  • Dae-Jeong Kim

    • University of California, Irvine

  • Zachary Fisk

    • University of California, Irvine

  • Jennifer Hoffman

    • University of British Columbia, Harvard University