General, Strong Impurity-Strength Dependence of Quasiparticle Interference

TL;DR

This paper reveals that quasiparticle interference patterns depend strongly on impurity strength, challenging previous assumptions and emphasizing the importance of impurity details in interpreting spectroscopic experiments.

Contribution

It demonstrates through T-matrix theory and first-principles calculations that impurity strength significantly influences QPI patterns, even in simple models and complex materials like Weyl semimetals.

Findings

QPI patterns vary with impurity strength in simple lattice models.

Impurity strength critically affects the interpretation of spectroscopic data.

Rich impurity-dependent structures are predicted in Weyl semimetal TaAs.

Abstract

Quasiparticle interference (QPI) patterns in momentum space are often assumed to be independent of the strength of the impurity potential when compared with other quantities, such as the joint density of states. Here, using the $T$-matrix theory, we show that this assumption breaks down completely even in the simplest case of a single-site impurity on the square lattice with an $s$ orbital per site. Then, we predict from first-principles, a very rich, impurity-strength-dependent structure in the QPI pattern of TaAs, an archetype Weyl semimetal. This study thus demonstrates that the consideration of the details of the scattering impurity including the impurity strength is essential for interpreting Fourier-transform scanning tunneling spectroscopy experiments in general.