Theoretical modeling of various spectroscopies for cuprates and topological insulators

Susmita Basak, Northeastern University

Abstract

Spectroscopies resolved highly in momentum, energy and/or spatial dimensions are playing an important role in unraveling key properties of wide classes of novel materials. However, spectroscopies do not usually provide a direct map of the underlying electronic spectrum, but act as a complex `filter' to produce a `mapping' of the underlying energy levels, Fermi surfaces (FSs) and excitation spectra. The connection between the electronic spectrum and the measured spectra is described as a generalized `matrix element effect'. The nature of the matrix element involved differs greatly between different spectroscopies. For example, in angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES) an incoming photon knocks out an electron from the sample and the energy and momentum of the photoemitted electron is measured. This is quite different from what happens in K-edge resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS), where an X-ray photon is scattered after inducing electronic transitions near the Fermi energy through an indirect second order process, or in Compton scattering where the incident X-ray photon is scattered inelastically from an electron transferring energy and momentum to the scattering electron. For any given spectroscopy, the matrix element is, in general, a complex function of the phase space of the experiment, e.g. energy/polarization of the incoming photon and the energy/momentum/spin of the photoemitted electron in the case of ARPES. The matrix element can enhance or suppress signals from specific states, or merge signals of groups of states, making a good understanding of the matrix element effects important for not only a robust interpretation of the spectra, but also for ascertaining optimal regions of the experimental phase space for zooming in on states of the greatest interest. In this thesis I discuss a comprehensive scheme for modeling various highly resolved spectroscopies of the cuprates and topological insulators (TIs) where effects of matrix element, crystal structure, strong electron correlations (for cuprates) and spin-orbit coupling (for TIs) are included realistically in material-specific detail.

Turning to the cuprates, in order to obtain a realistic description of various spectroscopies, one must include not only the effects of the matrix elements and the complexity of the crystal structure, but also of strong electronic correlations beyond the local density approximation (LDA)-based conventional picture, so that the physics of kinks, pseudogaps and superconductivity can be taken into account properly. In this connection, a self-consistent, intermediate coupling scheme informed by material-specific, first-principles band structures has been developed, where electron correlation effects beyond the LDA are incorporated via appropriate self-energy corrections to the electron and hole one-particle Green's functions. Here the antiferromagnetic (AFM) order is used as the simplest model of a competing order. A number of salient features of the resulting electronic spectrum and its energy, momentum and doping dependencies are in accord with experimental observations in electron as well as hole doped cuprates. This scheme thus provides a reasonable basis for undertaking a comprehensive, beyond-LDA level of modeling of various spectroscopies. The specific topics considered here are: (i) Origin of high-energy kink or the waterfall effect found in ARPES; (ii) Identification of the three energy scales observed in RIXS spectra as the pseudogap, charge transfer gap, and Mott gap; (iii) Evolution of the electron momentum densities with holedoping as seen in Compton scattering experiments.

For three dimensional topological insulators, the ARPES and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) spectra has been analyzed using a tight-binding model as well as a k .p model. The spin-orbit coupling, which is essential to produce the characteristic features of the surface states of a TI, is included realistically in the above models. In our generalized k .p model Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling term extends up to fifth order to reproduce the correct spin-polarization of the surface electrons. These model calculations explain a number of important features associated with the energy and spins of the surface electrons of the first and second generations of TIs. The specific issues addressed in this article are: (i) Non-orthogonality between spin and momentum of the surface electrons; (ii) Electron dynamics at the TI-metal interface; (iii) Origin of the broken time-reversal symmetry observed in the Fourier transform scanning tunneling spectroscopy.