Scanning tunneling spectroscopy and surface quasiparticle interference in models for the strongly correlated topological insulators SmB6 and PuB6

TL;DR

This paper theoretically investigates the surface electronic signatures of strongly correlated topological insulators SmB6 and PuB6 using a multiband tight-binding model and slave-particle approach, focusing on scanning tunneling spectroscopy and quasiparticle interference.

Contribution

It provides detailed predictions of surface-state signatures and QPI patterns in SmB6 and PuB6, incorporating strong correlations and spin structure considerations.

Findings

Predicted energy and momentum dependence of QPI signals.

Identified spin structure of surface Dirac cones.

Results applicable to both SmB6 and PuB6.

Abstract

SmB6 is one of the candidate compounds for topological Kondo insulators, a class of materials which combines a non-trivial topological band structure with strong electronic correlations. Here we employ a multiband tight-binding description, supplemented by a slave-particle approach to account for strong interactions, to theoretically study the surface-state signatures in scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) and quasiparticle interference (QPI). We discuss the spin structure of the three surface Dirac cones of SmB6 and provide concrete predictions for the energy and momentum dependence of the resulting QPI signal. Our results also apply to PuB6, a strongly correlated topological insulator with a very similar electronic structure.