Observation of topological electronic structure in actinide monopnictide ThSb

アクチノイドモノプニクタイドThSbにおけるトポロジカル電子構造の観測

角田 一樹   

Sumida, Kazuki

Topological materials have attracted vast research interests due to their exotic physical properties. The peculiar electronic structures in these materials, such as Dirac-cone-like surface states (SS) in topological insulators, originate from the band inversion caused by spin-orbit coupling. Therefore, heavy-element compounds can be a good platform for searching the topologically non-trivial phases. Recently, the band inversion and Dirac-cone-like SS have been verified in rare-earth monopnictides utilizing angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES). For actinide monopnictides, on the other hand, similar topological band structures were theoretically predicted, but few experimental investigations have been conducted. In this work, we have investigated the electronic structures of Th-based actinide monopnictides by first-principles calculations and observed the signature of band inversion in ThSb by soft X-ray ARPES.