No Arabic abstract
Topological insulators are bulk semiconductors that manifest in-gap massless Dirac surface states due to the topological bulk-boundary correspondence principle [1-3]. These surface states have been a subject of tremendous ongoing interest, due both to their intrinsic properties and to higher order emergence phenomena that can be achieved by manipulating the interface environment [4-11]. Here, angle resolved photoemission (ARPES) spectromicroscopy and supplementary scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) are performed on the model topological insulator Bi2Se3 to investigate the interplay of crystallographic inhomogeneity with the topologically ordered bulk and surface band structure. Quantitative analysis methods are developed to obtain key spectroscopic information in spite of a limited dwell time on each measured point. Band energies are found to vary on the scale of 50 meV across the sample surface, enabling single-sample measurements that are analogous to a multi-sample doping series (termed a binning series). Focusing separately on the surface and bulk electrons reveals a nontrivial hybridization-like interplay between fluctuations in the surface and bulk state energetics.
We reanalyze some of the critical transport experiments and provide a coherent understanding of the current generation of topological insulators (TIs). Currently TI transport studies abound with widely varying claims of the surface and bulk states, often times contradicting each other, and a proper understanding of TI transport properties is lacking. According to the simple criteria given by Mott and Ioffe-Regel, even the best TIs are not true insulators in the Mott sense, and at best, are weakly-insulating bad metals. However, band-bending effects contribute significantly to the TI transport properties including Shubnikov de-Haas oscillations, and we show that utilization of this band-bending effect can lead to a Mott insulating bulk state in the thin regime. In addition, by reconsidering previous results on the weak anti-localization (WAL) effect with additional new data, we correct a misunderstanding in the literature and generate a coherent picture of the WAL effect in TIs.
The protected surface conductivity of topological insulators, carried by ultra-relativistic Dirac fermions, is in high demand for the next generation of electronic devices. Progress in the unambiguous identification of this surface contribution and, in a second step, its control are needed to move forward. Here we demonstrate both, with a combined transport and spectroscopy study of high-quality single crystals and mesoscopic devices of the topological insulator TlBiSe2. We show how various external stimuli-from thermal radiation, via low-intensity light, to high-intensity laser pumping and current driving-can boost the surface contribution, thereby making it both unambiguously detectable and potentially exploitable for applications. Once switched on, the extra surface contribution is persistent, with lifetimes of hundreds of years at low temperatures. We understand this effect in terms of the well-known concept of surface charge accumulation via a Schottky barrier formation, and propose that the same mechanism underlies also the slow relaxations seen with spectroscopic probes in our and other materials, which might thus also be persistent. We expect our technique to be readily transferable to other materials and probes, thereby shedding light on unexplained slow relaxations in transport and beyond.
We investigate the properties of a single substitutional Mn impurity and its associated acceptor state on the (111) surface of Bi$_2$Se$_3$ topological insulator. Combining ab initio calculations with microscopic tight-binding modeling, we identify the effects of inversion-symmetry and time-reversal-symmetry breaking on the electronic states in the vicinity of the Dirac point. In agreement with experiments, we find evidence that the Mn ion is in the ${+2}$-valence state and introduces an acceptor in the bulk band gap. The Mn-acceptor has predominantly $p$-character, and is localized mainly around the Mn impurity and its nearest-neighbor Se atoms. Its electronic structure and spin-polarization are determined by the hybridization between the Mn $d$-levels and the $p$-levels of surrounding Se atoms, which is strongly affected by electronic correlations at the Mn site. The opening of the gap at the Dirac point depends crucially on the quasi-resonant coupling and the strong real-space overlap between the spin-chiral surface states and the mid-gap spin-polarized Mn-acceptor states.
Bulk and surface state contributions to the electrical resistance of single-crystal samples of the topological Kondo insulator compound SmB6 are investigated as a function of crystal thickness and surface charge density, the latter tuned by ionic liquid gating with electrodes patterned in a Corbino disk geometry on a single surface. By separately tuning bulk and surface conduction channels, we show conclusive evidence for a model with an insulating bulk and metallic surface states, with a crossover temperature that depends solely on the relative contributions of each conduction channel. The surface conductance, on the order of 100 e^2/h and electron-like, exhibits a field-effect mobility of 133 cm^2/V/s and a large carrier density of ~2x10^{14}/cm^2, in good agreement with recent photoemission results. With the ability to gate-modulate surface conduction by more than 25%, this approach provides promise for both fundamental and applied studies of gate-tuned devices structured on bulk crystal samples.
The absorption of heavily doped graphene in the terahertz (THz) and mid-infrared (MIR) spectral regions is considered taking into account both the elastic scattering due to finite-range disorder and the variations of concentration due to long-range disorder. Interplay between intra- and interband transitions is analyzed for the high-frequency regime of response, near the Pauli blocking threshold. The gate voltage and temperature dependencies of the absorption efficiency are calculated. It is demonstrated that for typical parameters, the smearing of the interband absorption edge is determined by a unscreened part of long-range disorder while the intraband absorption is determined by finite-range scattering. The latter yields the spectral dependencies which deviate from those following from the Drude formula. The obtained dependencies are in good agreement with recent experimental results. The comparison of the results of our calculations with the experimental data provides a possibility to extract the disorder characteristics.