Evidence for electronic signature of magnetic transition in topological magnet HoSbTe

TL;DR

This study provides experimental evidence of electronic signatures associated with magnetic transitions in the topological magnet HoSbTe, revealing how magnetic order influences its electronic structure through STM measurements and theoretical calculations.

Contribution

It demonstrates the magnetic transition-driven changes in electronic states of HoSbTe, combining STM experiments with first-principles calculations to reveal new quasi-particle interference signals.

Findings

Emergence of new quasi-particle interference signals with ferromagnetism

Minor differences in electronic structure near the Fermi energy between magnetic states

Magnetism-driven transition of electronic states confirmed by calculations

Abstract

Topological insulators with intrinsic magnetic order are emerging as an exciting platform to realize fundamentally new excitations from topological quantum states of matter. To study these systems and their physics, people have proposed a variety of magnetic topological insulator systems, including HoSbTe, an antiferromagnetic weak topological insulator candidate. In this work, we use scanning tunneling microscopy to probe the electronic structure of HoSbTe with antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic orders that are tuned by applying an external magnetic field. Although around the Fermi energy, we find minor differences between the quasi-particle interferences under the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic orders, deep inside the valance region, a new quasi-particle interference signal emerges with ferromagnetism. This observation is consistent with our first-principles calculations indicating the magnetism-driven transition of the electronic states in this spin-orbit coupled topological magnet.