Unusual ²⁰⁹Bi NMR quadrupole effects in topological insulator Bi₂Se₃

Three-dimensional topological insulators are an important class of modern materials, and a strong spin-orbit coupling is involved in making the bulk electronic states very different from those near the surface. Bi₂Se₃ is a model compound, and ²⁰⁹Bi NMR is employed here to investigate the bulk properties of the material with focus on the quadrupole splitting. It will be shown that this splitting measures the energy band inversion induced by spin-orbit coupling in quantitative agreement with first-principle calculations. Furthermore, this quadrupole interaction is very unusual as it can show essentially no angular dependence, e.g., even at the magic angle the first-order splitting remains. Therefore, it is proposed that the magnetic field direction is involved in setting the quantization axis for the electrons, and that their life time leads to a new electronically driven relaxation mechanism, in particular for quadrupolar nuclei like ²⁰⁹Bi. While a quantitative understanding of these effects cannot be given, the results implicate that NMR can become a powerful tool for the investigation of such systems.