No Arabic abstract
We report on a detailed study of the terahertz (THz) photoresistivity in a strained HgTe three-dimensional topological insulator (3D TI) for all Fermi level positions: inside the conduction and valence bands, and in the bulk gap. In the presence of a magnetic field we detect a resonance corresponding to the cyclotron resonance (CR) in the top surface Dirac fermions (DF) and examine the nontrivial dependence of the surface state cyclotron mass on the Fermi level position. We also detect additional resonant features at moderate electron densities and demonstrate that they are caused by the mixing of surface DF and bulk electrons. At high electron densities, we observe THz radiation induced 1/B-periodic low-field magneto-oscillations coupled to harmonics of the CR and demonstrate that they have a common origin with microwave-induced resistance oscillations (MIRO) previously observed in high mobility GaAs-based heterostructures. This observation attests the superior quality of 2D electron system formed by helical surface states in strained HgTe films.
We report on the observation of cyclotron resonance induced photocurrents, excited by continuous wave terahertz radiation, in a 3D topological insulator (TI) based on an 80 nm strained HgTe film. The analysis of the photocurrent formation is supported by complimentary measurements of magneto-transport and radiation transmission. We demonstrate that the photocurrent is generated in the topologically protected surface states. Studying the resonance response in a gated sample we examined the behavior of the photocurrent, which enables us to extract the mobility and the cyclotron mass as a function of the Fermi energy. For high gate voltages we also detected cyclotron resonance (CR) of bulk carriers, with a mass about two times larger than that obtained for the surface states. The origin of the CR assisted photocurrent is discussed in terms of asymmetric scattering of TI surface carriers in the momentum space. Furthermore, we show that studying the photocurrent in gated samples provides a sensitive method to probe the effective masses and the mobility of 2D Dirac surface states, when the Fermi level lies in the bulk energy gap or even in the conduction band.
From the analysis of the cyclotron resonance, we experimentally obtain the band structure of the three-dimensional topological insulator based on a HgTe thin film. Top gating was used to shift the Fermi level in the film, allowing us to detect separate resonance modes corresponding to the surface states at two opposite film interfaces, the bulk conduction band, and the valence band. The experimental band structure agrees reasonably well with the predictions of the $mathbf{kcdot p}$ model. Due to the strong hybridization of the surface and bulk bands, the dispersion of the surface states is close to parabolic in the broad range of the electron energies.
The most interesting experimental results obtained in studies of 2D and 3D topological insulators (TIs) based on HgTe quantum wells and films are reviewed. In the case of 2D TIs, these include the observation of nonlocal ballistic and diffusion transport, the magnetic breakdown of 2D TIs, and an anomalous temperature dependence of edge-channel resistance. In 3D TIs, a record-setting high mobility of surface two-dimensional Dirac fermions (DFs) has been attained. This enabled determining all the main TI parameters (the bulk gap and the density of DFs on both of its surfaces) and provided information on the phase of the Shubnikov - de Haas oscillations of DFs, which indicates the rigid topological coupling between the fermion spin and momentum. Prospects for further research are discussed in the conclusion.
The surface of topological insulators is proposed as a promising platform for spintronics and quantum information applications. In particular, when time- reversal symmetry is broken, topological surface states are expected to exhibit a wide range of exotic spin phenomena for potential implementation in electronics. Such devices need to be fabricated using nanoscale artificial thin films. It is of critical importance to study the spin behavior of artificial topological MBE thin films associated with magnetic dopants, and with regards to quantum size effects related to surface-to-surface tunneling as well as experimentally isolate time-reversal breaking from non-intrinsic surface electronic gaps. Here we present observation of the first (and thorough) study of magnetically induced spin reorientation phenomena on the surface of a topological insulator. Our results reveal dramatic rearrangements of the spin configuration upon magnetic doping contrasted with chemically similar nonmagnetic doping as well as with quantum tunneling phenomena in ultra-thin high quality MBE films. While we observe that the spin rearrangement induced by quantum tunneling occurs in a time-reversal invariant fashion, we present critical and systematic observation of an out-of-plane spin texture evolution correlated with magnetic interactions, which breaks time-reversal symmetry, demonstrating microscopic TRB at a Kramers point on the surface.
Experimental identification of three-dimensional (3D) Dirac semimetals in solid state systems is critical for realizing exotic topological phenomena and quantum transport such as the Weyl phases, high temperature linear quantum magnetoresistance and topological magnetic phases. Using high resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we performed systematic electronic structure studies on well-known compound Cd3As2. For the first time, we observe a highly linear bulk Dirac cone located at the Brillouin zone center projected onto the (001) surface which is consistent with a 3D Dirac semimetal phase in Cd3As2. Remarkably, an unusually high Dirac Fermion velocity up to 10.2 textrm{AA}{cdot}$eV (1.5 times 10^{6} ms^-1) is seen in samples where the mobility far exceeds 40,000 cm^2/V.s suggesting that Cd3As2 can be a promising candidate as a hypercone analog of graphene in many device-applications which can also incorporate topological quantum phenomena in a large gap setting. Our experimental identification of this novel topological 3D Dirac semimetal phase, distinct from a 3D topological insulator phase discovered previously, paves the way for exploring higher dimensional relativistic physics in bulk transport and for realizing novel Fermionic matter such as a Fermi arc nodal metal.