Phonon-Dressed Quasiparticles in Epitaxial Scandium Nitride Resolved by Soft X-ray ARPES
Abstract
Electron-phonon interactions govern quasiparticle energies, lifetimes, and temperature-dependent band structures in semiconductors. However, direct momentum-resolved experimental evidence of their impact on quasiparticle electronic structure remains scarce, particularly in nitride semiconductors. Here, we present conclusive experimental evidence of electron-phonon interaction-induced quasiparticle renormalization and pronounced spectral broadening in p-type scandium nitride (ScN), using soft x-ray angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. First-principles spectral-function calculations due to electron-phonon coupling reproduce the measured spectra, capturing a pronounced quasiparticle kink ~2.3 eV below the valence-band maximum, phonon satellite features arising from long-range electron-phonon coupling, and a direct bandgap zero-point renormalization of -124.3 meV within the non-adiabatic Allen-Heine-Cardona approach. We further show that the anomalous temperature-induced increase in the direct bandgap in ScN originates from the combined effects of thermal expansion and electron-phonon coupling, contributing comparably near room temperature. Our results establish ScN as a model platform for visualizing electron-phonon coupling and provide a quantitative benchmark for predictive first-principles descriptions of quasiparticle renormalization in semiconductors.
Related
- Spatially resolved quantum magnetometry and stray-field reconstruction of permalloy microdisks using boron-vacancy centers in hexagonal boron nitride
- Time- and Frequency-Resolved Observation of Inverse Orbital Hall Effect in Gallium Nitride via Terahertz Polarimetry
- Quantitative Imaging of Scandium Isotopes with a Long Axial Field-of-View PET/CT
- On Quasiparticles within the Refined Gribov-Zwanziger Model
- Field-tuned quasiparticles and electronic structure in heavy-fermion YbNi4P2
BibTeX
@misc{rudra2026phonondressed,
title = {{Phonon-Dressed Quasiparticles in Epitaxial Scandium Nitride Resolved by Soft X-ray ARPES}},
author = {Sourav Rudra and Dheemahi Rao and Meng-Jie Huang and Subhajit Manna and Renuka Karanje and Aritra Dey and Sanjoy Kr Mahatha and Samuel Poncé and Bivas Saha},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.33533},
eprint = {2610.33533},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.33533},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Phonon-Dressed Quasiparticles in Epitaxial Scandium Nitride Resolved by Soft X-ray ARPES
AU - Sourav Rudra
AU - Dheemahi Rao
AU - Meng-Jie Huang
AU - Subhajit Manna
AU - Renuka Karanje
AU - Aritra Dey
AU - Sanjoy Kr Mahatha
AU - Samuel Poncé
AU - Bivas Saha
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/24
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.33533
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.33533
AB - Electron-phonon interactions govern quasiparticle energies, lifetimes, and temperature-dependent band structures in semiconductors. However, direct momentum-resolved experimental evidence of their impact on quasiparticle electronic structure remains scarce, particularly in nitride semiconductors. Here, we present conclusive experimental evidence of electron-phonon interaction-induced quasiparticle renormalization and pronounced spectral broadening in p-type scandium nitride (ScN), using soft x-ray angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. First-principles spectral-function calculations due to electron-phonon coupling reproduce the measured spectra, capturing a pronounced quasiparticle kink ~2.3 eV below the valence-band maximum, phonon satellite features arising from long-range electron-phonon coupling, and a direct bandgap zero-point renormalization of -124.3 meV within the non-adiabatic Allen-Heine-Cardona approach. We further show that the anomalous temperature-induced increase in the direct bandgap in ScN originates from the combined effects of thermal expansion and electron-phonon coupling, contributing comparably near room temperature. Our results establish ScN as a model platform for visualizing electron-phonon coupling and provide a quantitative benchmark for predictive first-principles descriptions of quasiparticle renormalization in semiconductors.
ER -