No Arabic abstract
In a recent work by Ji Seop Oh et al., BaBiO3(001) thin films were grown on SrTiO3 by Pulsed Laser Deposition. It was argued that the films are BiO2-terminated from the modelling of angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiments. The authors claim, in opposition to previous theoretical predictions, that there are no metallic surface states on their films. In this short comment we question that the authors have enough evidence to make such a claim, as we consider that the large mismatch between SrTiO3 and BaBiO3 and the lack of control of their fabrication process with reflection high energy electron difraction could unlikely give high quality films with a single BiO2- termination, which is one of the requisites for the stabilization of these surface metallic states.
Bi2Te3 is a member of a new class of materials known as topological insulators which are supposed to be insulating in the bulk and conducting on the surface. However experimental verification of the surface states has been difficult in electrical transport measurements due to a conducting bulk. We report low temperature magnetotransport measurements on single crystal samples of Bi2Te3. We observe metallic character in our samples and large and linear magnetoresistance from 1.5 K to 290 K with prominent Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillations whose traces persist upto 20 K. Even though our samples are metallic we are able to obtain a Berry phase close to the value of {pi} expected for Dirac fermions of the topological surface states. This indicates that we might have obtained evidence for the topological surface states in metallic single crystals of Bi2Te3. Other physical quantities obtained from the analysis of the SdH oscillations are also in close agreement with those reported for the topological surface states. The linear magnetoresistance observed in our sample, which is considered as a signature of the Dirac fermions of the surface states, lends further credence to the existence of topological surface states.
Despite the low resistivity (~ 1 mohm cm), the metallic electrical transport has not been commonly observed in the inverse spinel NiCo2O4, except in certain epitaxial thin films. Previous studies have stressed the effect of valence mixing and degree of spinel inversion on the electric conduction of NiCo2O4 films. In this work, we have studied the effect of microstructure by comparing the NiCo2O4 epitaxial films grown on MgAl2O4 (111) and on Al2O3 (0001) substrates. Although the optimal growth condition and the magnetic properties are similar for the NiCo2O4/MgAl2O4 and the NiCo2O4/Al2O3, they show metallic and semiconducting electrical transport respectively. Despite similar temperature and field dependence of magnetization, the NiCo2O4/Al2O3 show much larger magnetoresistance at low temperature. Post-growth annealing decreases the resistivity of NiCo2O4/Al2O3, but the annealed films are still semiconducting. The correlation between the structural correlation length and the resistivity suggests that the microstructural disorder, generated by the dramatic mismatch between the NiCo2O4 and Al2O3 crystal structures, may be the origin of the absence of the metallic electrical transport in NiCo2O4. These results reveal microstructural disorder as another key factor in controlling the electrical transport of NiCo2O4, with potentially large magnetoresistance for spintronics application.
Two-dimensional (2D) surface of the topological materials is an attractive channel for the electrical conduction reflecting the linearly-dispersive electronic bands. By applying a reliable systematic thickness t dependent measurement of sheet conductance, here we elucidate the dimensionality of the electrical conduction paths of a Weyl semimetal Co3Sn2S2. Under the ferromagnetic phase, the 2D conduction path clearly emerges in Co3Sn2S2 thin films, indicating a formation of the Fermi arcs projected from Weyl nodes. Comparison between 3D conductivity and 2D conductance provides the effective thickness of the surface conducting region being estimated to be approximately 20 nm, which is rather thicker than 5 nm in topological insulator Bi2Se3. This large value may come from the narrow gap at Weyl point and relatively weak spin-orbit interaction of the Co3Sn2S2. The emergent surface conduction will provide a pathway to activate quantum and spintronic transport features stemming from a Weyl node in thin-film-based devices.
When surface states (SSs) form in topological insulators (TIs), they inherit the properties of bulk bands, including the electron-hole (e-h) asymmetry but with much more profound impacts. Here, via combining magneto-infrared spectroscopy with theoretical analysis, we show that e-h asymmetry significantly modifies the SS electronic structures when interplaying with the quantum confinement effect. Compared to the case without e-h asymmetry, the SSs now bear not only a band asymmetry as that in the bulk but also a shift of the Dirac point relative to the bulk bands and a reduction of the hybridization gap up to 70%. Our results signify the importance of e-h asymmetry in band engineering of TIs in the thin film limit.
In ideal topological insulator (TI) films the bulk state, which is supposed to be insulating, should not provide any electric coupling between the two metallic surfaces. However, transport studies on existing TI films show that the topological states on opposite surfaces are electrically tied to each other at thicknesses far greater than the direct coupling limit where the surface wavefunctions overlap. Here, we show that as the conducting bulk channels are suppressed, the parasitic coupling effect diminishes and the decoupled surface channels emerge as expected for ideal TIs. In Bi2Se3 thin films with fully suppressed bulk states, the two surfaces, which are directly coupled below ~10 QL, become gradually isolated with increasing thickness and are completely decoupled beyond ~20 QL. On such a platform, it is now feasible to implement transport devices whose functionality relies on accessing the individual surface layers without any deleterious coupling effects.