Journal
PHYSICAL REVIEW B
Volume 90, Issue 16, Pages -Publisher
AMER PHYSICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.90.161202
Keywords
-
Funding
- Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation
- Swedish Research Council
- European Commission Network SemiSpinNet [PITN-GA-2008-215368]
- European Regional Development Fund through the Innovative Economy grant [POIG.01.01.02-00-108/09]
- Polish National Science Centre (NCN) [2011/03/B/ST3/02659]
- Baltic Science Link project coordinated by the Swedish Research Council, VR
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The recent discovery of a topological phase transition in IV-VI narrow-gap semiconductors has revitalized the decades-old interest in the bulk band inversion occurring in these materials. Here we systematically study the (001) surface states of Pb1-xSnxSe mixed crystals by means of angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy in the parameter space 0 <= x <= 0.37 and 300 K >= T >= 9 K. Using the surface-state observations, we monitor directly the topological phase transition in this solid solution and gain valuable information on the evolution of the underlying fundamental band gap of the system. In contrast to common model expectations, the band-gap evolution appears to be nonlinear as a function of the studied parameters, resulting in the measuring of a discontinuous band-inversion process. This finding signifies that the anticipated gapless bulk state is in fact not a stable configuration and that the topological phase transition therefore exhibits features akin to a first-order transition.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available