Mott scattering at the interface between a metal and a topological insulator

Erhai Zhao, Chun Zhang, Mahmoud Lababidi

Published 2010-05-17, updated 2011-01-17Version 2

We compute the spin-active scattering matrix and the local spectrum at the interface between a metal and a three-dimensional topological band insulator. We show that there exists a critical incident angle at which complete (100%) spin flip reflection occurs and the spin rotation angle jumps by $\pi$. We discuss the origin of this phenomena, and systematically study the dependence of spin-flip and spin-conserving scattering amplitudes on the interface transparency and metal Fermi surface parameters. The interface spectrum contains a well-defined Dirac cone in the tunneling limit, and smoothly evolves into a continuum of metal induced gap states for good contacts. We also investigate the complex band structure of Bi$_2$Se$_3$.