Quasiparticle scattering in two dimensional helical liquid

TL;DR

This paper investigates quasiparticle interference patterns in a two-dimensional helical liquid, revealing how impurity types and hexagonal warping influence observable features, with implications for understanding topological insulator surface states.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of QPI patterns caused by different impurities and identifies the effects of hexagonal warping in a 2D helical liquid, linking symmetry properties to microscopic models.

Findings

Hexagonal warping affects charge and spin density QPI patterns.

Symmetry properties help determine microscopic model symmetries.

Friedel oscillation decay depends on Fermi energy, not universal.

Abstract

We study the quasiparticle interference (QPI) patterns caused by scattering off nonmagnetic, magnetic point impurities, and edge impurities, separately, in a two dimensional helical liquid, which describes the surface states of a topological insulator. The unique features associated with hexagonal warping effects are identified in the QPI patterns of charge density with nonmagnetic impurities and spin density with magnetic impurities. The symmetry properties of the QPI patterns can be used to determine the symmetry of microscopic models. The Friedel oscillation is calculated for edge impurities and the decay of the oscillation is not universal, strongly depending on Fermi energy. Some discrepancies between our theoretical results and current experimental observations are discussed.