Experimental verification of PbBi$_{2}$Te$_{4}$ as a 3D topological insulator

K. Kuroda, H. Miyahara, M. Ye, S. V. Eremeev, Yu. M. Koroteev, E. E. Krasovskii, E. V. Chulkov, S. Hiramoto, C. Moriyoshi, Y. Kuroiwa, K. Miyamoto, T. Okuda, M. Arita, K. Shimada, H. Namatame, M. Taniguchi, Y. Ueda, A. Kimura

Published 2011-11-24, updated 2012-03-05Version 2

The first experimental evidence is presented of the topological insulator state in PbBi$_{2}$Te$_{4}$. A single surface Dirac cone is observed by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) with synchrotron radiation. Topological invariants $\mathbb{Z}_2$ are calculated from the {\it ab initio} band structure to be 1; (111). The observed two-dimensional iso-energy contours in the bulk energy gap are found to be the largest among the known three-dimensional topological insulators. This opens a pathway to achieving a sufficiently large spin current density in future spintronic devices.