Spin-Orbital Texture in Topological Insulators

Haijun Zhang, Chao-Xing Liu, and Shou-Cheng Zhang
Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 066801 – Published 5 August 2013
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Abstract

For three-dimensional topological insulators in the Bi2Se3 family, topological surface states with pz orbitals have a left-handed spin texture for the upper Dirac cone and a right-handed spin texture for the lower Dirac cone. In this work, we predict a new form of the spin-orbital texture associated with the px and py orbitals. For the upper Dirac cone, a left-handed (right-handed) spin texture is coupled to the “radial” (“tangential”) orbital texture, whereas for the lower Dirac cone, the coupling of spin and orbital textures is the exact opposite. The “tangential” (“radial”) orbital texture is dominant for the upper (lower) Dirac cone, leading to the right-handed spin texture for the in-plane orbitals of both the upper and lower Dirac cones. A spin-resolved and photon polarized angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiment is proposed to observe this novel spin-orbital texture.

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  • Received 22 November 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.066801

© 2013 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Haijun Zhang1, Chao-Xing Liu2, and Shou-Cheng Zhang1

  • 1Department of Physics, McCullough Building, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-4045, USA
  • 2Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802-6300, USA

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Vol. 111, Iss. 6 — 9 August 2013

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