title: Dephasing effect on backscattering of helical surface states in 3D topological insulators.
abstract: We analyze the dephasing effect on the backscattering behavior of the helical surface states in 3D topological insulators. We show that the combination of dephasing and impurity scattering can cause backscattering in the helical states. Especially for the charge impurity case, the backscattering cross section becomes extremely large around the Dirac point. This large backscattering behavior can lead to the anomalous "gaplike" features found in recent experiments [T. Sato et al., Nat. Phys. 7, 840 (2011)].
authors.affiliation: International Center for Quantum Materials and School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China and Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Haiwen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: College of Physics, Optoelectronics and Energy, Soochow University, Suzhou 215006, China.
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: International Center for Quantum Materials and School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China and Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Qing-Feng
authors.initials: QF
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: International Center for Quantum Materials and School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China and Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: X C
authors.initials: XC
authors.lastname: Xie