Emerging edge states on the surface of the epitaxial semimetal CuMnAs thin film

Giang D. Nguyen; Krishna Chaitanya Pitike; Peter Wadley; Valentino R. Cooper; Mina Yoon; Tom Berlijn; An Ping Li

doi:10.1063/1.5130624

Emerging edge states on the surface of the epitaxial semimetal CuMnAs thin film

Giang D. Nguyen, Krishna Chaitanya Pitike, Peter Wadley, Valentino R. Cooper, Mina Yoon, Tom Berlijn, An Ping Li

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Abstract

Epitaxial thin films of CuMnAs have recently attracted attention due to their potential to host relativistic antiferromagnetic spintronics and exotic topological physics. Here, we report on the structural and electronic properties of a tetragonal CuMnAs thin film studied using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and density functional theory (DFT). STM reveals a surface terminated by As atoms, with the expected semi-metallic behavior. An unexpected zigzag step edge surface reconstruction is observed with emerging electronic states below the Fermi energy. DFT calculations indicate that the step edge reconstruction can be attributed to an As deficiency that results in changes in the density of states of the remaining As atoms at the step edge. This understanding of the surface structure and step edges on the CuMnAs thin film will enable in-depth studies of its topological properties and magnetism.

Original language	English
Article number	061603
Journal	Applied Physics Letters
Volume	116
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5130624
State	Published - Feb 10 2020

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Author(s).

Funding

This research was conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility. Part of the theory effort (T.B., K.P., and V.R.C.) was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division. We acknowledge the computational resources provided by the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) and Compute and Data Environment for Science (CADES) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which are supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract Nos. DE-AC02-05CH11231 and DE-AC05-00OR22725, respectively.

Funders	Funder number
Data Environment for Science
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Science
Basic Energy Sciences
Cades Foundation
Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering

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abstract = "Epitaxial thin films of CuMnAs have recently attracted attention due to their potential to host relativistic antiferromagnetic spintronics and exotic topological physics. Here, we report on the structural and electronic properties of a tetragonal CuMnAs thin film studied using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and density functional theory (DFT). STM reveals a surface terminated by As atoms, with the expected semi-metallic behavior. An unexpected zigzag step edge surface reconstruction is observed with emerging electronic states below the Fermi energy. DFT calculations indicate that the step edge reconstruction can be attributed to an As deficiency that results in changes in the density of states of the remaining As atoms at the step edge. This understanding of the surface structure and step edges on the CuMnAs thin film will enable in-depth studies of its topological properties and magnetism.",

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AU - Pitike, Krishna Chaitanya

AU - Wadley, Peter

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AU - Yoon, Mina

AU - Berlijn, Tom

AU - Li, An Ping

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AB - Epitaxial thin films of CuMnAs have recently attracted attention due to their potential to host relativistic antiferromagnetic spintronics and exotic topological physics. Here, we report on the structural and electronic properties of a tetragonal CuMnAs thin film studied using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and density functional theory (DFT). STM reveals a surface terminated by As atoms, with the expected semi-metallic behavior. An unexpected zigzag step edge surface reconstruction is observed with emerging electronic states below the Fermi energy. DFT calculations indicate that the step edge reconstruction can be attributed to an As deficiency that results in changes in the density of states of the remaining As atoms at the step edge. This understanding of the surface structure and step edges on the CuMnAs thin film will enable in-depth studies of its topological properties and magnetism.

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Emerging edge states on the surface of the epitaxial semimetal CuMnAs thin film

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