Evidence of surface transport and weak antilocalization in a single crystal of theBi2Te2Setopological insulator

2014/06/11 by Chandra Shekhar, C. E. Viol Barbosa, Carlos E. ViolBarbosa +6 · 2 citations
Materials Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Condensed Matter Physics #Computer science #Condensed matter physics #Coupling (piping) #Crystal (programming language) #Electrical engineering #Electrical resistivity and conductivity #Ferromagnetism #Geometry #Graphene research and applications #Magnetic field #Magnetoresistance #Materials science #Mathematics #Metal #Optics #Optoelectronics #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Scattering #Semiconductor #Spintronics #Surface (topology) #Surface conductivity #Surface states #Thermal conduction #Topological Materials and Phenomena #Topological insulator #Topology (electrical circuits) #Weak localization #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.mtrl-sci

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.90.165140

published as Phys. Rev. B 90, 165140 (2014) · 6 Pages, 4 Figures

arxiv created 2014/06/11 · openalex publication_date 2014/10/30 · arxiv updated 2014/11/10 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Topological insulators are known for their metallic surface states, a result of strong spin-orbit coupling, that exhibit unique surface transport phenomenon. However, these surface transport phenomena are buried in the presence of metallic bulk conduction. We synthesized very high quality Bi₂Te₂Se single crystals by using a modified Bridgman method that possess high bulk resistivity of >20 \ensuremathΩ\phantom\rule0.16em0excm below 20 K, whereas the bulk is mostly inactive and surface transport dominates. The temperature dependence of resistivity follows an activation law like a gap semiconductor in temperature range 20--300 K. To extract the surface transport from that of the bulk, we designed a special measurement geometry to measure the resistance and found that single-crystal Bi₂Te₂Se exhibits a crossover from bulk to surface conduction at 20 K. Simultaneously, the material also shows strong evidence of weak antilocalization in magnetotransport owing to the protection against scattering by conducting surface states. This simple geometry facilitates finding evidence of surface transport in topological insulators, which are promising materials for future spintronic applications.

Citations

• Impurity Effect on Weak Antilocalization in the Topological InsulatorBi2Te3
• Two-dimensional universal conductance fluctuations and the electron-phonon interaction of surface states in Bi2Te2Se microflakes
• Density functional study of ternary topological insulator thin films
• Topological Delocalization of Two-Dimensional Massless Dirac Fermions
• Electron interaction-driven insulating ground state in Bi2Se3topological insulators in the two-dimensional limit
• Topological insulators and superconductors
• Quantum Spin Hall Insulator State in HgTe Quantum Wells
• Experimental Demonstration of Topological Surface States Protected by Time-Reversal Symmetry
• Topological Insulators
• Spin-Orbit Interaction and Magnetoresistance in the Two Dimensional Random System

Cited by

• Weak antilocalization effect due to topological surface states in Bi2Se2.1Te0.9
• Comprehensive analysis for the high field magneto-conductivity of Bi2Te3 single crystal