Orbital selective spin-texture in a topological insulator

Journal Article · Fri May 15 04:00:00 EDT 2015 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4915467· OSTI ID:22391775

Singh, Bahadur; Prasad, R. ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur 208016 (India)

Three-dimensional topological insulators support a metallic non-trivial surface state with unique spin texture, where spin and momentum are locked perpendicular to each other. In this work, we investigate the orbital selective spin-texture associated with the topological surface states in Sb2Te{sub 3}, using the first principles calculations. Sb2Te{sub 3} is a strong topological insulator with a p-p type bulk band inversion at the Γ-point and supports a single topological metallic surface state with upper (lower) Dirac-cone has left (right) handed spin-texture. Here, we show that the topological surface state has an additional locking between the spin and orbitals, leading to an orbital selective spin-texture. The out-of-plane orbitals (p{sub z} orbitals) have an isotropic orbital texture for both the Dirac cones with an associated left and right handed spin-texture for the upper and lower Dirac cones, respectively. In contrast, the in-planar orbital texture (p{sub x} and p{sub y} projections) is tangential for the upper Dirac-cone and is radial for the lower Dirac-cone surface state. The dominant in-planar orbital texture in both the Dirac cones lead to a right handed orbital-selective spin-texture.

• OSTI ID: 22391775
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Journal Name: AIP Conference Proceedings Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 1661; ISSN APCPCS; ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ANTIMONY TELLURIDES
CONES
DIELECTRIC MATERIALS
L-S COUPLING
SPIN
SURFACES
TEXTURE
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
TOPOLOGY