Paper detail

STM imaging of a bound state along a step on the surface of the topological insulator Bi$_2$Te$_3$

Detailed study of the LDOS associated with the surface-state-band near a step-edge of the strong topological-insulator Bi2Te3, reveal a one-dimensional bound state that runs parallel to the stepedge and is bound to it at some characteristic distance. This bound state is clearly observed in the bulk gap region, while it becomes entangled with the oscillations of the warped surface band at high energy, and with the valence band states near the Dirac point. Using the full effective Hamiltonian proposed by Zhang et al., we obtain a closed formula for this bound state that fits the data and provide further insight into the general topological properties of the electronic structure of the surface band near strong structural defects.