Structural & Electronic Surface Dynamics
Structural & Electronic Surface Dynamics
Research Group Ralph Ernstorfer, MP Fellow
Research Group Ralph Ernstorfer, MP Fellow

News Post
New paper: Unveiling the orbital texture using intrinsic linear dichroism in multidimensional photoemission spectroscopy
Nov 2021

The momentum-dependent orbital character in crystalline solids, referred to as orbital texture, is of capital importance in the emergence of symmetry-broken collective phases, such as charge density waves as well as superconducting and topological states of matter. By performing extreme ultraviolet multidimensional angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy for two different crystal orientations linked to each other by mirror symmetry, we isolate and identify the role of orbital texture in photoemission from the transition metal dichalcogenide 1T-TiTe2. By comparing our experimental results with theoretical calculations based on both a quantitative one-step model of photoemission and an intuitive tight-binding model, we unambiguously demonstrate the link between the momentum-dependent orbital orientation and the emergence of strong intrinsic linear dichroism in the photoelectron angular distributions. Our results represent an important step towards going beyond band structure (eigenvalues) mapping and learning about electronic wavefunction and orbital texture of solids by exploiting matrix element effects in photoemission spectroscopy.

Full article: S. Beaulieu et al. Unveiling the orbital texture of 1T-TiTe2 using intrinsic linear dichroism in multidimensional photoemission spectroscopy. npj Quantum Mater. 6, 93 (2021).