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Register a new userAharonov-Bohm Oscillations in a Quasi-Ballistic 3D Topological Insulator Nanowire
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In three-dimensional topological insulators (3D TI) nanowires, transport occurs via gapless surface states where the spin is fixed perpendicular to the momentum[1-6]. Carriers encircling the surface thus acquire a pi Berry phase, which is predicted to open up a gap in the lowest-energy 1D surface subband. Inserting a magnetic flux ({Phi}) of h/2e through the nanowire should cancel the Berry phase and restore the gapless 1D mode[7-8]. However, this signature has been missing in transport experiments reported to date[9-11]. Here, we report measurements of mechanically-exfoliated 3D TI nanowires which exhibit Aharonov-Bohm oscillations consistent with topological surface transport. The use of low-doped, quasi-ballistic devices allows us to observe a minimum conductance at {Phi} = 0 and a maximum conductance reaching e^2/h at {Phi} = h/2e near the lowest subband (i.e. the Dirac point), as well as the carrier density dependence of the transport.
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A direct signature of electron transport at the metallic surface of a topological insulator is the Aharonov-Bohm oscillation observed in a recent study of Bi_2Se_3 nanowires [Peng et al., Nature Mater. 9, 225 (2010)] where conductance was found to oscillate as a function of magnetic flux $phi$ through the wire, with a period of one flux quantum $phi_0=h/e$ and maximum conductance at zero flux. This seemingly agrees neither with diffusive theory, which would predict a period of half a flux quantum, nor with ballistic theory, which in the simplest form predicts a period of $phi_0$ but a minimum at zero flux due to a nontrivial Berry phase in topological insulators. We show how h/e and h/2e flux oscillations of the conductance depend on doping and disorder strength, provide a possible explanation for the experiments, and discuss further experiments that could verify the theory.
New experiments are presented on the transmission of electron waves through a 2DEG (2 dimensional electron gas) ring with a gate on top of one of the branches. Magnetoconductance oscillations are observed, and the phase of the Aharanov-Bohm signal alternates between 0 and pi as the gate voltage is scanned. A Fourier transform of the data reveals a dominant period in the voltage which corresponds to the energy spacing between successive transverse modes.A theoretical model including random phase shifts between successive modes reproduces the essential features of the experiment.
We present magnetotransport measurements in HgTe quantum well with inverted band structure, which expected to be a two-dimensional topological insulator having the bulk gap with helical gapless states at the edge. The negative magnetoresistance is observed in the local and nonlocal resistance configuration followed by the periodic oscillations damping with magnetic field. We attribute such behaviour to Aharonov-Bohm effect due to magnetic flux through the charge carrier puddles coupled to the helical edge states. The characteristic size of these puddles is about 100 nm.
Topological insulators have an insulating bulk but a metallic surface. In the simplest case, the surface electronic structure of a 3D topological insulator is described by a single 2D Dirac cone. A single 2D Dirac fermion cannot be realized in an isolated 2D system with time-reversal symmetry, but rather owes its existence to the topological properties of the 3D bulk wavefunctions. The transport properties of such a surface state are of considerable current interest; they have some similarities with graphene, which also realizes Dirac fermions, but have several unique features in their response to magnetic fields. In this review we give an overview of some of the main quantum transport properties of topological insulator surfaces. We focus on the efforts to use quantum interference phenomena, such as weak anti-localization and the Aharonov-Bohm effect, to verify in a transport experiment the Dirac nature of the surface state and its defining properties. In addition to explaining the basic ideas and predictions of the theory, we provide a survey of recent experimental work.
With an atomic force microscope a ring geometry with self-aligned in-plane gates was directly written into a GaAs/AlGaAs-heterostructure. Transport measurements in the open regime show only one transmitting mode and Aharonov-Bohm oscillations with more than 50% modulation are observed in the conductance. The tuning via in-plane gates allows to study the Aharonov-Bohm effect in the whole range from the open ring to the Coulomb-blockade regime.
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