Detection of Surface States in Quantum Materials ZrTe 2 and TmB 4 by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy

Condensed Matter

article

Maria Victoria Ale Crivillero¹  Jean C. Souza¹  Vicky Hasse¹  Marcus Schmidt¹  Natalya Shitsevalova³  Slavomir Gabáni⁴  Konrad Siemensmeyer⁵  Karol Flachbart⁴  Steffen Wirth¹ 

[1] Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids;Instituto de Física “Gleb Wataghin”;Institute for Problems of Materials Science;Institute of Experimental Physics;Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin

关键词: Scanning Tunneling Microscopy;    surface states;    topology;   

DOI  :  10.3390/condmat8010009

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy (STM/S), with its exceptional surface sensitivity and exquisite energy resolution, is well suited for the investigation of surface states down to atomic length scales. As such, it became an essential tool to probe the surface states of materials, including those with non-trivial topology. One challenge, however, can be the preparation of clean surfaces which allow the study of preferably unchanged surface properties with respect to the bulk amount. Here, we report on the STM/S of two materials, ZrTe 2 and TmB 4. The former cleaves easily and defects can be examined in detail. However, our STS data can only qualitatively be compared to the results of band structure calculations. In the case of TmB 4, the preparation of suitable surfaces is highly challenging, and atomically flat surfaces (likely of B-termination) were only encountered rarely. We found a large density of states (DOS) at the Fermi level E F and a mostly featureless differential conductance near E F. Further efforts are required to relate our results to the electronic structure predicted by ab initio calculations.

【 授权许可】

CC BY