Defect and structural imperfection effects on the electronic properties of BiTeI surfaces

The surface electronic structure of the narrow-gap seminconductor BiTeI exhibits a large Rashba-splitting which strongly depends on the surface termination. Here we report on a detailed investigation of the surface morphology and electronic properties of cleaved BiTeI single crystals by scanning tunneling microscopy, photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES, XPS), electron diffraction (SPA-LEED) and density functional theory calculations. Our measurements confirm a previously reported coexistence of Te- and I-terminated surface areas

New generation of two-dimensional spintronic systems realized by coupling of Rashba and Dirac fermions

Intriguing phenomena and novel physics predicted for two-dimensional (2D) systems formed by electrons in Dirac or Rashba states motivate an active search for new materials or combinations of the already revealed ones. Being very promising ingredients in themselves, interplaying Dirac and Rashba systems can provide a base for next generation of spintronics devices, to a considerable extent, by mixing their striking properties or by improving technically significant characteristics of each other. Here, we demonstrate that in BiTeI@PbSb2Te4 composed of a BiTeI trilayer on top of the topological insulator (TI) PbSb2Te4 weakly- and strongly-coupled Dirac-Rashba hybrid systems are realized. The coupling strength depends on both interface hexagonal stacking and trilayer-stacking order. The weakly-coupled system can serve as a prototype to examine, e.g., plasmonic excitations, frictional drag, spin-polarized transport, and charge-spin separation effect in multilayer helical metals. In the strongly-coupled regime, within similar to 100 meV energy interval of the bulk TI projected bandgap a helical state substituting for the TI surface state appears. This new state is characterized by a larger momentum, similar velocity, and strong localization within BiTeI. We anticipate that our findings pave the way for designing a new type of spintronics devices based on Rashba-Dirac coupled systems.