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A consistent view of the samarium hexaboride terminations to resolve the nature of its surface states
- Publication Year :
- 2018
-
Abstract
- The research effort prompted by the prediction that SmB$_6$ could be the first topological Kondo insulator has produced a wealth of new results, though not all of these seem compatible. A major discrepancy exists between scanning tunneling microscopy / spectroscopy (STM/S) and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), because the two experimental methods suggest a very different number of terminations of the (100) surface with different properties. Here we tackle this issue in a combined STM/S and ARPES study. We find that two of the well-ordered topographies reported in earlier STM studies can be associated with the crystal terminations identified using photoemission. We further observe a reversal of the STM contrast with bias voltage for one of the topographies. We ascribe this result to a different energy dependence of Sm and B-derived states, and show that it can be used to obtain element specific images of SmB$_6$ and identify which topography belongs to which termination. We finally find STS results to support a modification of the low-energy electronic structure at the surface that has been proposed as the trivial origin of surface metallicity in this material.<br />Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures
- Subjects :
- Condensed Matter - Strongly Correlated Electrons
Subjects
Details
- Database :
- arXiv
- Publication Type :
- Report
- Accession number :
- edsarx.1810.13380
- Document Type :
- Working Paper