Establishing coherent momentum-space electronic states in locally ordered materials
Rich momentum-dependent electronic structure naturally arises in solids with long-range crystalline symmetry. Reliable and scalable quantum technologies rely on materials that are either not perfect crystals or non-crystalline, breaking translational symmetry. This poses the fundamental questions of whether coherent momentum-dependent electronic states can arise without long-range order, and how they can be characterized. Here we investigate Bi<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub>, which exists in crystalline, nanocrystalline, and amorphous forms, allowing direct comparisons between varying degrees of spatial ordering. Through angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we show for the first time momentum-dependent band structure with Fermi surface repetitions in an amorphous solid. The experimental data is complemented by a model that accurately reproduces the vertical, dispersive features as well as the replication at higher momenta in the amorphous form. These results reveal that well-defined real-space length scales are sufficient to produce dispersive band structures, and that photoemission can expose the imprint of these length scales on the electronic structure.
Authors
- Adolfo G. Grushin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7678-7100)
- Mary Scott (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9543-6725)
- Samuel Ciocys (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6729-7281)
- Paul Corbae (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2259-5557)
- Ellis Kennedy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1616-2595)
- F. Hellman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9135-6330)
- Quentin Marsal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6506-1582)
- Dániel Varjas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3283-6182)
- Alessandra Lanzara (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9519-8974)
Institutions
- Institut polytechnique de Grenoble (FR)
- Uppsala University (SE)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US)
- Stockholm University (SE)
- Budapest University of Technology and Economics (HU)
- Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research (DE)
- Complexity, Topology and Dynamics in Quantum Matter (DE)
- Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems (DE)
- AlbaNova (SE)
- Institut Néel (FR)
- Université Grenoble Alpes (FR)
- University of California, Berkeley (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2024-09-17
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-51953-y
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Topological Materials and Phenomena
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.03
Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- European Commission
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Hungarian Scientific Research Fund
- Office of Science
- Horizon 2020 Framework Programme
- National Research, Development and Innovation Office
- Basic Energy Sciences