Observation of topological transition of Fermi surface from a spindle-torus to a torus in large bulk Rashba spin-split BiTeCl

TL;DR

This study investigates the topological transition of the Fermi surface in BiTeCl from spindle-torus to torus as carrier density varies, revealing non-trivial Berry phases and 3D topology, relevant for spintronics and topological phenomena.

Contribution

It provides the first experimental observation of Fermi surface topology transition in bulk Rashba spin-split BiTeCl using quantum oscillations.

Findings

Fermi surface transitions from spindle-torus to torus with carrier density change

Detection of non-trivial {7} Berry phase in both inner and outer Fermi surfaces

Confirmation of large Rashba spin-orbit splitting in bulk conduction band

Abstract

The recently observed large Rashba-type spin splitting in the BiTeX (X = I, Br, Cl) bulk states due to the absence of inversion asymmetry and large charge polarity enables observation of the transition in Fermi surface topology from spindle-torus to torus with varying the carrier density. These BiTeX systems with high spin-orbit energy scales offer an ideal platform for achieving practical spintronic applications and realizing non-trivial phenomena such as topological superconductivity and Majorana fermions. Here we use Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations to investigate the electronic structure of the bulk conduction band of BiTeCl single crystals with different carrier densities. We observe the topological transition of the Fermi surface (FS) from a spindle-torus to a torus. The Landau level fan diagram reveals the expected non-trivial {\pi} Berry phase for both the inner and outer FSs. Angle-dependent oscillation measurements reveal three-dimensional FS topology when the Fermi level lies in the vicinity of the Dirac point. All the observations are consistent with large Rashba spin-orbit splitting in the bulk conduction band.