No Arabic abstract
The paper examines weak localization (WL) of surface states with a quadratic band crossing in topological crystalline insulators. It is shown that the topology of the quadratic band crossing point dictates the negative sign of the WL conductivity correction. For the surface states with broken time-reversal symmetry, an explicit dependence of the WL conductivity on the band Berry flux is obtained and analyzed for different carrier-density regimes and types of the band structure (normal or inverted). These results suggest a way to detect the band Berry flux through WL measurements.
We investigate the electrical conductivity and thermoelectric effects in topological crystalline insulators in the presence of short- and long-range impurity interactions. We employ the generalized Boltzmann formalism for anisotropic Fermi surface systems. The conductivity exhibits a local minimum as doping varies owing to the Van Hove singularity in the density of states originated from the saddle point in the surface states band structure. Suppression of the interband scattering of the charge carriers at high-energy Dirac points results in a maximum in the electrical conductivity. Whenever the Fermi level passes an extremum in the conductivity, Seebeck coefficient changes sign. In addition, it is revealed that profound thermoelectric effects can be attained around these extrema points.
We study the properties of a family of anti-pervoskite materials, which are topological crystalline insulators with an insulating bulk but a conducting surface. Using ab-initio DFT calculations, we investigate the bulk and surface topology and show that these materials exhibit type-I as well as type-II Dirac surface states protected by reflection symmetry. While type-I Dirac states give rise to closed circular Fermi surfaces, type-II Dirac surface states are characterized by open electron and hole pockets that touch each other. We find that the type-II Dirac states exhibit characteristic van-Hove singularities in their dispersion, which can serve as an experimental fingerprint. In addition, we study the response of the surface states to magnetic fields.
We report on the fabrication of Josephson junctions using the topological crystalline insulator Pb$_{0.5}$Sn$_{0.5}$Te as the weak link. The properties of these junctions are characterized and compared to those fabricated with weak links of PbTe, a similar material yet topologically trivial. Most striking is the difference in the AC Josephson effect: junctions made with Pb$_{0.5}$Sn$_{0.5}$Te exhibit rich subharmonic structure consistent with a skewed current-phase relation. This structure is absent in junctions fabricated from PbTe. A discussion is given on the origin of this effect as an indication of novel behavior arising from the topologically nontrivial surface state.
The metallic surface state of a topological insulator (TI) is not only topologically protected, but exhibits a remarkable property of inducing an effective vector potential on curved surfaces. For an electron in the surface state of a spherical or a cylindrical TI (TI nanoparticle or nanowire) a pseudo-magnetic monopole or a fictitious solenoid is effectively induced, encoding the geometry of the system. Here, by taking an example of a hyperbolic surface we demonstrate that as a consequence of this property stemming from its active spin degree of freedom, the surface state is by itself topologically protected.
We report on van der Waals epitaxial growth, materials characterization and magnetotransport experiments in crystalline nanosheets of Bismuth Telluro-Sulfide (BTS). Highly layered, good-quality crystalline nanosheets of BTS are obtained on SiO$_2$ and muscovite mica. Weak-antilocalization (WAL), electron-electron interaction-driven insulating ground state and universal conductance fluctuations are observed in magnetotransport experiments on BTS devices. Temperature, thickness and magnetic field dependence of the transport data indicate the presence of two-dimensional surface states along with bulk conduction, in agreement with theoretical models. An extended-WAL model is proposed and utilized in conjunction with a two-channel conduction model to analyze the data, revealing a surface component and evidence of multiple conducting channels. A facile growth method and detailed magnetotransport results indicating BTS as an alternative topological insulator material system are presented.