Moriya A., Nakayama K., Kawakami T., Maeda K., Tokuyama A., Souma S., Chen C., Avila J., Asensio M.C., Kitamura M., Horiba K., Kumigashira H., Takahashi T., Fujiwara K., Segawa K., Sato T.

Physical Review Research

5 , 2 , 23152 - (2023)

We have performed micro-/nanofocused angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) on cleaved single-crystal surfaces of bismuth to clarify the spatially resolved electronic states. While the dominant area of the cleaved surface was found to display the well-known Rashba-spin-split surface state with the (111)-surface origin, the steplike region with a typical width of ~10-20 µm shows distinctly different band structure and fermiology originating from the hard-to-cleave (100) surface. This unexpected mixture of the (100)-derived electronic states in a tiny area of the cleaved (111) surface is attributed to the crystal planes separated by a twin boundary, as supported by laser microscopy and electron backscatter diffraction measurements. The present study paves a pathway toward investigating electronic states associated with inhomogeneities and coexisting phases of hard-to-cleave crystal planes and complex materials by spatially resolved ARPES, making this technique a powerful method to investigate the interplay between local electronic states and crystal structures when combined with structural characterization techniques. © 2023 authors. Published by the American Physical Society. Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.