Angular-resolved photoemission electron spectroscopy and transport studies of the elemental topological insulator α -Sn

Gray tin, also known as $\ensuremath{\alpha}$-Sn, can be turned into a three-dimensional topological insulator (3D-TI) by strain and finite-size effects. Such room-temperature 3D-TI is peculiarly interesting for spintronics due to the spin-momentum locking along the Dirac cone (linear dispersion) of the surface states. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) has been used to investigate the dispersion close to the Fermi level in thin (001)-oriented epitaxially strained films of $\ensuremath{\alpha}$-Sn for different film thicknesses as well as for different capping layers (Al, ${\mathrm{AlO}}_{x}$, and MgO). Indeed a proper capping layer is necessary to be able to use $\ensuremath{\alpha}$-Sn surface states for spintronic applications. In contrast with free surfaces or surfaces coated with Ag, coating the $\ensuremath{\alpha}$-Sn surface with Al or ${\mathrm{AlO}}_{x}$ leads to a drop in the Fermi level below the Dirac point, and an important consequence for electronic transport is the presence of bulk states at the Fermi level. $\ensuremath{\alpha}$-Sn films coated by ${\mathrm{AlO}}_{x}$ are studied by electrical magnetotransport: Despite magnetotransport properties of the bulk electronic states of the ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}}_{8}$ band playing an important role as suggested by ab initio calculations, there is clear evidence of surface states revealed by Shubnikov--de Haas oscillations corresponding to the ARPES observation.