Dephasing Effect on Backscattering of Helical Surface States in 3D Topological Insulators

Haiwen Liu, Hua Jiang, Qing-feng Sun, and X. C. Xie
Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 046805 – Published 24 July 2014
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Abstract

We analyze the dephasing effect on the backscattering behavior of the helical surface states in 3D topological insulators. We show that the combination of dephasing and impurity scattering can cause backscattering in the helical states. Especially for the charge impurity case, the backscattering cross section becomes extremely large around the Dirac point. This large backscattering behavior can lead to the anomalous “gaplike” features found in recent experiments [T. Sato et al., Nat. Phys. 7, 840 (2011)].

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  • Received 10 November 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.046805

© 2014 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Haiwen Liu1,2, Hua Jiang3, Qing-feng Sun1,2,*, and X. C. Xie1,2,†

  • 1International Center for Quantum Materials and School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
  • 2Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing 100871, China
  • 3College of Physics, Optoelectronics and Energy, Soochow University, Suzhou 215006, China

  • *sunqf@pku.edu.cn
  • xcxie@pku.edu.cn

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Issue

Vol. 113, Iss. 4 — 25 July 2014

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