Persistent Coherence and Spin-Polarization of Topological Surface States on Topological Insulators

Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA(Dated: June 21, 2013)Gapless surface states on topological insulators are protected from elastic scattering on non-magnetic impurities which makes them promising candidates for low-power electronic applications.However, for wide-spread applications, these states should remain coherent and signi cantly spinpolarized at ambient temperatures. Here, we studied the coherence and spin-structure of the topo-logical states on the surface of a model topological insulator, Bi