  The Bi$_2$Se$_3$ class of topological insulators has recently been shown to
undergo a superconducting transition upon hole or electron doping
(Cu$_x$-Bi$_2$Se$_3$ with T$_C$=3.8$^o$K and Pd$_x$-Bi$_2$Te$_3$ with
T$_C$=5$^o$K), raising the possibilities that these are the first known
"topological superconductors" or realizes a superconducting state that can be
potentially used as Majorana platforms (L.A. Wray \textit{et.al.}, Nature Phys.
\textbf{6}, 855-859 (2010)). We use angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy
to examine the full details of the spin-orbital groundstates of these materials
including Bi$_2$Te$_3$, observing that the spin-momentum locked topological
surface states remain well defined and non-degenerate with respect to bulk
electronic states at the Fermi level in the optimally doped superconductor and
obtaining their experimental Fermi energies. The implications of this
unconventional surface (that undergoes superconducting at lower temperatures)
topology are discussed, and we also explore the possibility of realizing the
same topology in superconducting variants of Bi$_2$Te$_3$ (with T$_C$ $\sim$
5$^o$K). Characteristics of the experimentally measured three dimensional bulk
states are examined in detail for these materials with respect to the
superconducting state and topological properties, showing that a single
Majorana fermion zero mode is expected to be bound at each superconducting
vortex on the surface. Systematic measurements also reveal intriguing
renormalization and charge correlation instabilities of the surface-localized
electronic modes.
