Tomonaga-Luttinger Liquid in the Topological Edge Channel of Multilayer FeSe

A two-dimensional topological insulator exhibits helical edge states topologically protected against single-particle backscattering. Such protection breaks down, however, when electron-electron interactions are significant or when edge reconstruction occurs, leading to a suppressed density of states (DOS) at the Fermi level that follows universal scaling with temperature and energy, characteristic of Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid (TLL). Here, we grow multilayer FeSe on SrTiO3 by 200 molecular beam epitaxy and observe robust edge states at both the {100}Se and the {110}Se steps using scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy. We determine the DOS follows a power law, resulting in the Luttinger parameter K of 0.26 +/- 0.02 and 0.43 +/- 0.07 for the {100}Se and {110}Se edges, respectively. The smaller K for the {100}Se edge also indicates strong correlations, attributed to ferromagnetic ordering likely present due to checkerboard antiferromagnetic fluctuations in FeSe. These results demonstrate TLL in FeSe helical edge channels, providing an exciting model system for novel topological excitations arising from superconductivity and interacting helical edge states.

Automated summary

The study revealed the presence of helical edge states in FeSe multilayer films, with density of states following a power law characteristic of Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid, and corresponding Luttinger parameters of 0.26 and 0.43 at the {100}Se and {110}Se edges respectively. These results demonstrate strong correlations and nontrivial excitations in FeSe, providing insights into topological properties and novel phenomena in helical edge channels.