Tunable Surface Conductivity in Bi2Se3 Revealed in Diffusive Electron Transport

We demonstrate that the weak antilocalization effect can serve as a convenient method for detecting decoupled surface transport in topological insulator thin films. In the regime where a bulk Fermi surface coexists with the surface states, the low-field magnetoconductivity is well described by the Hikami-Larkin-Nagaoka equation for single-component transport of noninteracting electrons. When the electron density is lowered, the magnetotransport behavior deviates from the single-component description and strong evidence is found for independent conducting channels at or near the bottom and top surfaces. The magnetic-field-dependent part of corrections to conductivity due to Zeeman energy is shown to be negligible for the fields relevant to the weak antilocalization despite considerable electron-electron interaction effects on the temperature dependence of the conductivity.

[1]  A. Mirlin,et al.  Interaction-induced criticality in Z(2) topological insulators. , 2009, Physical review letters.

[2]  C. Kane,et al.  Observation of Unconventional Quantum Spin Textures in Topological Insulators , 2009, Science.

[3]  R J Cava,et al.  Bulk band gap and surface state conduction observed in voltage-tuned crystals of the topological insulator Bi2Se3. , 2010, Physical review letters.

[4]  Yong Wang,et al.  Manipulating surface states in topological insulator nanoribbons. , 2011, Nature nanotechnology.

[5]  J Chen,et al.  Gate-voltage control of chemical potential and weak antilocalization in Bi₂Se₃. , 2010, Physical review letters.

[6]  Q. Xue,et al.  Electron interaction-driven insulating ground state in Bi 2 Se 3 topological insulators in the two-dimensional limit , 2010, 1011.1055.

[7]  Yoichi Ando,et al.  Large bulk resistivity and surface quantum oscillations in the topological insulator Bi 2 Te 2 Se , 2010, 1011.2846.

[8]  L. Fu,et al.  Superconducting proximity effect and majorana fermions at the surface of a topological insulator. , 2007, Physical review letters.

[9]  N. P. Ong,et al.  Quantum Oscillations and Hall Anomaly of Surface States in the Topological Insulator Bi2Te3 , 2010, Science.

[10]  A. I. Larkin,et al.  Spin-Orbit Interaction and Magnetoresistance in the Two Dimensional Random System , 1980 .

[11]  Xiaoyue He,et al.  Growth of Topological Insulator Bi2Se3 Thin Films on SrTiO3 with Large Tunability in Chemical Potential , 2011 .

[12]  Xiao-Liang Qi,et al.  Aharonov-Bohm interference in topological insulator nanoribbons. , 2009, Nature materials.

[13]  Dong Qian,et al.  Topological surface states protected from backscattering by chiral spin texture , 2009, Nature.

[14]  C. Beenakker,et al.  Electrically detected interferometry of Majorana fermions in a topological insulator. , 2009, Physical review letters.

[15]  M Zahid Hasan,et al.  Three-Dimensional Topological Insulators , 2010, Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics.

[16]  Y. Ando,et al.  J ul 2 00 9 Quantum oscillations in a topological insulator Bi , 2009 .

[17]  Xiao-Liang Qi,et al.  The quantum spin Hall effect and topological insulators , 2010, 1001.1602.

[18]  G. Bergmann,et al.  Weak localization in thin films: a time-of-flight experiment with conduction electrons , 1984 .

[19]  M. Franz,et al.  Inverse spin-galvanic effect in the interface between a topological insulator and a ferromagnet. , 2010, Physical review letters.

[20]  Z. K. Liu,et al.  Experimental Realization of a Three-Dimensional Topological Insulator , 2010 .

[21]  F. Meier,et al.  A tunable topological insulator in the spin helical Dirac transport regime , 2009, Nature.

[22]  Xi Dai,et al.  Topological insulators in Bi2Se3, Bi2Te3 and Sb2Te3 with a single Dirac cone on the surface , 2009 .

[23]  L. Fu,et al.  Probing neutral Majorana fermion edge modes with charge transport. , 2009, Physical review letters.

[24]  F. Komori,et al.  Experiments on Localization and Interaction Effects in Metallic Films , 1985 .

[25]  C. Kane,et al.  Topological Insulators , 2019, Electromagnetic Anisotropy and Bianisotropy.

[26]  A. Efros,et al.  Electron-Electron Interactions in Disordered Systems , 1986, March 1.

[27]  H. Fukuyama,et al.  Magnetoresistance in Two-Dimensional Disordered Systems: Effects of Zeeman Splitting and Spin-Orbit Scattering , 1981 .

[28]  D. Hsieh,et al.  A topological Dirac insulator in a quantum spin Hall phase , 2008, Nature.

[29]  H. Köhler,et al.  The g‐factor of the conduction electrons in Bi2Se3 , 1975 .

[30]  A. Aronov,et al.  Spin relaxation and interaction effects in the disordered conductors , 1982 .

[31]  Fu-Chun Zhang,et al.  Impurity effect on weak antilocalization in the topological insulator Bi2Te3. , 2010, Physical review letters.

[32]  James Analytis,et al.  Two-dimensional surface state in the quantum limit of a topological insulator , 2010 .

[33]  Wei Zhang,et al.  Quantized Anomalous Hall Effect in Magnetic Topological Insulators , 2010, Science.

[34]  Shou-Cheng Zhang,et al.  Electrically controllable surface magnetism on the surface of topological insulators. , 2010, Physical review letters.

[35]  Jiadong Zang,et al.  Inducing a Magnetic Monopole with Topological Surface States , 2009, Science.

[36]  Liang Fu,et al.  Topological insulators with inversion symmetry , 2006, cond-mat/0611341.

[37]  J. E. Moore,et al.  Exciton condensation and charge fractionalization in a topological insulator film. , 2009, Physical review letters.

[38]  S. Kawaji,et al.  Negative magnetoresistance in Anderson localization of Si MOS inversion layers , 1982 .

[39]  T. V. Ramakrishnan,et al.  Disordered electronic systems , 1985 .

[40]  Xi Chen,et al.  Experimental demonstration of topological surface states protected by time-reversal symmetry. , 2009, Physical review letters.

[41]  R. Cava,et al.  Observation of a large-gap topological-insulator class with a single Dirac cone on the surface , 2009 .