Issue 13, 2021

Atom-surface van der Waals potentials of topological insulators and semimetals from scattering measurements

Abstract

The phenomenology of resonant scattering has been known since the earliest experiments upon scattering of atomic beams from surfaces and is a means of obtaining experimental information about the fundamentals of weak adsorption systems in the van der Waals regime. We provide an overview of the experimental approach based on new experimental data for the He–Sb2Te3(111) system, followed by a comparative overview and perspective of recent results for topological semimetal and insulator surfaces. Moreover, we shortly discuss the perspectives of calculating helium–surface interaction potentials from ab initio calculations. Our perspective demonstrates that atom-surface scattering provides direct experimental information about the atom-surface interaction in the weak physisorption regime and can also be used to determine the lifetime and mean free path of the trapped atom. We further discuss the effects of elastic and inelastic scattering on the linewidth and lifetime of the trapped He atom with an outlook on future developments and applications.

Graphical abstract: Atom-surface van der Waals potentials of topological insulators and semimetals from scattering measurements

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Perspective
Submitted
13 Oct 2020
Accepted
21 Dec 2020
First published
22 Dec 2020
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2021,23, 7637-7652

Atom-surface van der Waals potentials of topological insulators and semimetals from scattering measurements

A. Tamtögl, A. Ruckhofer, D. Campi, W. Allison and W. E. Ernst, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2021, 23, 7637 DOI: 10.1039/D0CP05388K

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