Ivo Pletikosic

Dirac Cones and Minigaps for Graphene on Ir(111)

Epitaxial graphene on Ir(111) prepared in excellent structural quality is investigated by angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy. It clearly displays a Dirac cone with the Dirac point shifted only slightly above the Fermi level. The moiré resulting from the overlaid graphene and Ir(111) surface lattices imposes a superperiodic potential giving rise to Dirac cone replicas and the opening of minigaps in the band structure.

Observation of the chiral magnetic effect in ZrTe5

The chiral magnetic effect is the generation of electric current induced by chirality imbalance in the presence of magnetic field. It is a macroscopic manifestation of the quantum anomaly in relativistic field theory of chiral fermions (massless spin 1/2 particles with a definite projection of spin on momentum) – a dramatic phenomenon arising from a collective motion of particles and antiparticles in the Dirac sea. The recent discovery of Dirac semimetals with chiral quasi-particles opens a fascinating possibility to study this phenomenon in condensed matter experiments. Here we report on the first observation of chiral magnetic effect through the measurement of magneto-transport in zirconium pentatelluride, ZrTe₅. Our angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiments show that this material’s electronic structure is consistent with a 3D Dirac semimetal. We observe a large negative magnetoresistance when magnetic field is parallel with the current. The measured quadratic field dependence of the magnetoconductance is a clear indication of the chiral magnetic effect. Furthermore, the observed phenomenon stems from the effective transmutation of Dirac semimetal into a Weyl semimetal induced by the parallel electric and magnetic fields that represent a topologically nontrivial gauge field background.

Electronic structure basis for the extraordinary magnetoresistance in WTe2

The electronic structure basis of the extremely large magnetoresistance in layered nonmagnetic tungsten ditelluride has been investigated by angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy. Hole and electron pockets of approximately the same size were found at low temperatures, suggesting that carrier compensation should be considered the primary source of the effect. The material exhibits a highly anisotropic Fermi surface from which the pronounced anisotropy of the magnetoresistance follows. A change in the Fermi surface with temperature was found and a high-density-of-states band that may take over conduction at higher temperatures and cause the observed turn-on behavior of the magnetoresistance in WTe2 was identified.

The mechanism of caesium intercalation of graphene.

Properties of many layered materials, including copper- and iron-based superconductors, topological insulators, graphite and epitaxial graphene, can be manipulated by the inclusion of different atomic and molecular species between the layers via a process known as intercalation. For example, intercalation in graphite can lead to superconductivity and is crucial in the working cycle of modern batteries and supercapacitors. Intercalation involves complex diffusion processes along and across the layers; however, the microscopic mechanisms and dynamics of these processes are not well understood. Here we report on a novel mechanism for intercalation and entrapment of alkali atoms under epitaxial graphene. We find that the intercalation is adjusted by the van der Waals interaction, with the dynamics governed by defects anchored to graphene wrinkles. Our findings are relevant for the future design and application of graphene-based nano-structures. Similar mechanisms can also have a role for intercalation of layered materials.

Chiral magnetic effect in ZrTe5

The chiral magnetic effect is the generation of electric current induced by chirality imbalance in the presence of magnetic field. It is a macroscopic manifestation of the quantum anomaly in relativistic field theory of chiral fermions (massless spin 1/2 particles with a definite projection of spin on momentum) – a dramatic phenomenon arising from a collective motion of particles and antiparticles in the Dirac sea. The recent discovery of Dirac semimetals with chiral quasi-particles opens a fascinating possibility to study this phenomenon in condensed matter experiments. Here we report on the first observation of chiral magnetic effect through the measurement of magneto-transport in zirconium pentatelluride, ZrTe₅. Our angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiments show that this material’s electronic structure is consistent with a 3D Dirac semimetal. We observe a large negative magnetoresistance when magnetic field is parallel with the current. The measured quadratic field dependence of the magnetoconductance is a clear indication of the chiral magnetic effect. Furthermore, the observed phenomenon stems from the effective transmutation of Dirac semimetal into a Weyl semimetal induced by the parallel electric and magnetic fields that represent a topologically nontrivial gauge field background.

Comparison of Sn-doped and nonstoichiometric vertical-Bridgman-grown crystals of the topological insulator Bi2Te2Se

A comparative study of the properties of topological insulator Bi2Te2Se (BTS) crystals grown by the vertical Bridgeman method is described. Two defect mechanisms that create acceptor impurities to compensate for the native n-type carriers are compared: Bi excess, and light Sn doping. Both methods yield low carrier concentrations and an n-p crossover over the length of the grown crystal boules, but lower carrier concentrations and higher resistivities are obtained for the Sn-doped crystals, which reach carrier concentrations as low as 8 x 1014 cm-3. Further, the temperature dependent resistivities for the Sn-doped crystals display strongly activated behavior at high temperatures, with a characteristic energy of half the bulk band gap. The (001) cleaved Sn-doped BTS crystals display high quality Shubnikov de Haas (SdH) quantum oscillations due to the topological surface state electrons. Angle resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) characterization shows that the Fermi energy (EF) for the Sn-doped crystals falls cleanly in the surface states with no interference from the bulk bands, that the Dirac point for the surface states lies approximately 60 meV below the top of the bulk valence band maximum, and allows for a determination of the bulk and surface state carrier concentrations as a function of Energy near EF. Electronic structure calculations that compare Bi excess and Sn dopants in BTS demonstrate that Sn acts as a special impurity, with a localized impurity band that acts as a charge buffer occurring inside the bulk band gap. We propose that the special resonant level character of Sn in BTS gives rise to the exceptionally low carrier concentrations and activated resistivities observed.

Inducing a Lifshitz transition by extrinsic doping of surface bands in the topological crystalline insulator Pb1-xSnxSe.

The narrow gap semiconductor Pb1-xSnxSe was investigated for topologically protected surface states in its rocksalt structural phase for x=0.45, 0.23, 0.15, and 0. Angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy of intrinsically p-doped samples showed a clear indication of two Dirac cones, eccentric about the time-reversal invariant point X¯ of the surface Brillouin zone for all but the x=0 sample. Adsorption of alkalies gradually filled the surface bands with electrons, driving the x>0 topological crystalline insulator systems through Lifshitz transitions, and from a holelike to electronlike Fermi surface. The electron-doped bands in x>0 samples exhibited the full configuration of the Dirac cones, also confirming electron-hole symmetry of the surface bands.

Absence of a Proximity Effect for Thin-Films of a Bi2Se3 Topological Insulator Grown on Top of a Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta Cuprate Superconductor

Superconductor: Bi2Se3/Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ T. Yilmaz, I. Pletikosić, 3 A. P. Weber, J. T. Sadowski, G. D. Gu, A. N. Caruso, B. Sinkovic, and T. Valla ∗ Department of Physics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269, USA Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science Department, Brookhaven National Lab, Upton, New York 11973, USA Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA National Synchrotron Light Source, Brookhaven National Lab, Upton, New York 11973, USA Center for Functional Nanomaterials, Brookhaven National Lab, Upton, NY 11973, USA Department of Physics, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri 64110, USA (Dated: March 18, 2014)

Finding the bare band: Electron coupling to two phonon modes in potassium-doped graphene on Ir(111)

We analyze renormalization of the pi band of n-doped epitaxial graphene on Ir(111) induced by electron-phonon coupling. Our procedure of extracting the bare band relies on recursive self-consistent refining of the functional form of the bare-band until the convergence. We demonstrate that the components of the self-energy, as well as the spectral intensity obtained from angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) show that the renormalization is due to the coupling to two distinct phonon excitations. From the velocity renormalization and an increase of the imaginary part of the self-energy we find the electron-phonon coupling constant to be ~0.2, which is in fair agreement with a previous study of the same system, despite the notable difference in the width of spectroscopic curves. Our experimental results also suggest that potassium intercalated between graphene and Ir(111) does not introduce any additional increase of the quasiparticle scattering rate.

d-band quantum well states in Ag(111) monolayer films; substrate-induced shifts

We report a study of 4d electronic states in monolayer silver films grown on Pd(111), Ni(111), Mo(110) and Cu(100) surfaces studied by means of high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). The Ag-4d states, when measured in the surface Brillouin zone centre (SBZ), show substrate-dependent shifts. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations for a free-standing silver monolayer provide evidence that the observed shifts are not induced by lateral expansion, compression or distortion of the silver unit cell. Using the phase accumulation model we show that 4d-derived electronic states in silver monolayers can be described in terms of quantum well states and that the matching of the electron wavefunctions at the interface with the substrate is one of the important mechanisms that generates the Ag-4d energy shifts. The dispersion of the states around the SBZ centre is measured and discussed.