Visualizing impurity-driven scattering phase textures in EuCd2As2
Abstract
Understanding how disorder modifies electronic states in magnetic semiconductors is important for controlling spin-dependent transport and topological responses. Here we use scanning tunneling microscopy to visualize scattering phase textures in EuCd2As2. By isolating a single surface wavevector we reconstruct spatial phase maps of the local density of states and identify phase dislocations characterized by 2pi winding around impurity sites. These phase singularities emerge systematically within charge puddles generated by Eu interstitials and their positions evolve with bias voltage. We show that their spatial structure is consistent with interference between multiple scattering channels, including contributions from spin-orbit coupling. We provide a model which reproduces phase dislocations and relates the decay of the phase gradient to the relative strength of spin-orbit and scalar scattering. Our results establish a route to access the phase of electronic scattering in real space and study the role of local disorder and spin-orbit interactions in shaping electronic states in quantum materials.
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BibTeX
@misc{sanchezbarquilla2026visualizing,
title = {{Visualizing impurity-driven scattering phase textures in EuCd2As2}},
author = {Raquel Sánchez-Barquilla and Rafael Pineda Medina and Pablo García Talavera and Adrian Valadkhani and Edwin Herrera and Brinda Kuthanazhi and Lin-Lin Wang and Sergey L. Bud'ko and Paul C. Canfield and Roser Valentí and Isabel Guillamón and William J. Herrera and Alfredo Levy Yeyati and Hermann Suderow},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.13398},
eprint = {2609.13398},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.13398},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Visualizing impurity-driven scattering phase textures in EuCd2As2
AU - Raquel Sánchez-Barquilla
AU - Rafael Pineda Medina
AU - Pablo García Talavera
AU - Adrian Valadkhani
AU - Edwin Herrera
AU - Brinda Kuthanazhi
AU - Lin-Lin Wang
AU - Sergey L. Bud'ko
AU - Paul C. Canfield
AU - Roser Valentí
AU - Isabel Guillamón
AU - William J. Herrera
AU - Alfredo Levy Yeyati
AU - Hermann Suderow
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/11
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.13398
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.13398
AB - Understanding how disorder modifies electronic states in magnetic semiconductors is important for controlling spin-dependent transport and topological responses. Here we use scanning tunneling microscopy to visualize scattering phase textures in EuCd2As2. By isolating a single surface wavevector we reconstruct spatial phase maps of the local density of states and identify phase dislocations characterized by 2pi winding around impurity sites. These phase singularities emerge systematically within charge puddles generated by Eu interstitials and their positions evolve with bias voltage. We show that their spatial structure is consistent with interference between multiple scattering channels, including contributions from spin-orbit coupling. We provide a model which reproduces phase dislocations and relates the decay of the phase gradient to the relative strength of spin-orbit and scalar scattering. Our results establish a route to access the phase of electronic scattering in real space and study the role of local disorder and spin-orbit interactions in shaping electronic states in quantum materials.
ER -