Dirac cone and pseudogapped density of states in the topological half-Heusler compound YPtBi

Abstract

Topological insulators (TIs) are exciting materials, which exhibit unprecedented properties, such as helical spin-momentum locking, which leads to large torques for magnetic switching and highly efficient spin current detection. Here we explore the compound YPtBi, an example from the class of half-Heusler materials, for which the typical band inversion of topological insulators was predicted. We prepared this material as thin films by conventional cosputtering from elementary targets. By in situ time-of-flight momentum microscopy, a Dirac conelike surface state with a Dirac point ≃300 meV below the Fermi energy was observed, in agreement with electronic structure-photoemission calculations. Only little additional spectral weight due to other states was observed at EF, which corroborates the identification of the topologically protected surface state and is highly relevant for spintronics applications.