Impact of static disorder on quasiparticle spectra: Debye-Waller, mean free path and potential fluctuation effects

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Main Authors: Della Valle, Enrico, Constantinou, Procopios, Schmitt, Thorsten, Muntwiler, Matthias, Aeppli, Gabriel, Strocov, Vladimir N.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Della Valle, Enrico
Constantinou, Procopios
Schmitt, Thorsten
Muntwiler, Matthias
Aeppli, Gabriel
Strocov, Vladimir N.
author_facet Della Valle, Enrico
Constantinou, Procopios
Schmitt, Thorsten
Muntwiler, Matthias
Aeppli, Gabriel
Strocov, Vladimir N.
contents ARPES is a widely used characterization technique in condensed matter physics, providing direct access to the single-electron spectral function of crystals, including their electronic band structure and Fermi surface. Measuring the band structure of novel quantum materials has been fundamentally important for determining, for example, non-trivial band topology or for identifying new classes of materials. A key challenge with these emerging quantum materials is that their initial crystalline quality is rarely optimized, which directly affects the spectra measured by ARPES. Here, we present a theoretical framework and experimental evidence addressing two common consequences of static disorder in photoemission experiments: the loss of coherent spectral weight and the broadening of spectral features. ARPES spectra can be understood as a sum of coherent and incoherent intensities, with their relative contributions controlled by atomic disorder. Under thermal disorder, the coherent intensity is exponentially suppressed as temperature increases, a phenomenon analogous to the Debye-Waller factor in diffraction, where Bragg peaks diminish in favor of diffuse scattering as disorder increases. In this work, we report a soft X-ray study of the deliberately disordered (via Ar ion sputtering) InAs(110) surface, characterized both by STM and LEED. We introduce a new framework that enables quantification of coherent photoemission intensity loss with increasing disorder, allowing both thermal and static disorder to be treated within a unified approach. Additionally, we identify a second major effect of disorder beyond lifetime broadening: inhomogeneous spectral broadening arising from local potential fluctuations. We show that such fluctuations increase the linewidths of the spectra of localized and delocalized states, and contribute to the suppression of ARPES intensity from states near the Fermi level.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2308_03707
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Impact of static disorder on quasiparticle spectra: Debye-Waller, mean free path and potential fluctuation effects
Della Valle, Enrico
Constantinou, Procopios
Schmitt, Thorsten
Muntwiler, Matthias
Aeppli, Gabriel
Strocov, Vladimir N.
Materials Science
ARPES is a widely used characterization technique in condensed matter physics, providing direct access to the single-electron spectral function of crystals, including their electronic band structure and Fermi surface. Measuring the band structure of novel quantum materials has been fundamentally important for determining, for example, non-trivial band topology or for identifying new classes of materials. A key challenge with these emerging quantum materials is that their initial crystalline quality is rarely optimized, which directly affects the spectra measured by ARPES. Here, we present a theoretical framework and experimental evidence addressing two common consequences of static disorder in photoemission experiments: the loss of coherent spectral weight and the broadening of spectral features. ARPES spectra can be understood as a sum of coherent and incoherent intensities, with their relative contributions controlled by atomic disorder. Under thermal disorder, the coherent intensity is exponentially suppressed as temperature increases, a phenomenon analogous to the Debye-Waller factor in diffraction, where Bragg peaks diminish in favor of diffuse scattering as disorder increases. In this work, we report a soft X-ray study of the deliberately disordered (via Ar ion sputtering) InAs(110) surface, characterized both by STM and LEED. We introduce a new framework that enables quantification of coherent photoemission intensity loss with increasing disorder, allowing both thermal and static disorder to be treated within a unified approach. Additionally, we identify a second major effect of disorder beyond lifetime broadening: inhomogeneous spectral broadening arising from local potential fluctuations. We show that such fluctuations increase the linewidths of the spectra of localized and delocalized states, and contribute to the suppression of ARPES intensity from states near the Fermi level.
title Impact of static disorder on quasiparticle spectra: Debye-Waller, mean free path and potential fluctuation effects
topic Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.03707