Metallicity at the Ioffe-Regal limit in a topological insulator thin film

ORAL

Abstract

The topological surface states of time-reversal invariant 3D topological insulators have applications for spintronics, metrology, and the realization of topological superconductivity. Initial excitement around these surface states, however, focused on the prediction that they should be robust against Anderson localization, even under strong disorder. This prediction has never been directly confirmed by transport measurements. We present low-temperature transport measurements of a gate-tunable Sb2Te3 topological insulator thin film that features high mobility and low carrier density. We find that metallicity is preserved at conductivities well below e2/h, where two dimensional electron systems conventionally scale to an insulating state. Near the charge neutrality point, we observe an unusual magnetoconductance response, which we associate with known weak localization/anti-localization behavior, but beyond the Ioffe-Regal limit kFl ~ 1.

*This work is supported by the Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division, under Contract DE-AC02-76SF00515.

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Presenters

  • Ilan Rosen

    • Applied Physics, Stanford University
    • Stanford University

Authors

  • Ilan Rosen

    • Applied Physics, Stanford University
    • Stanford University

  • Indra Yudhistira

    • National University of Singapore

  • Girish Sharma

    • National University of Singapore

  • Maryam Salehi

    • Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
    • Materials Science and Engineering, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
    • Materials Sci. & Eng., Rutgers University
    • Rutgers University, New Brunswick
    • Rutgers University
    • Rutgers University - New Brunswick

  • Jisoo Moon

    • Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
    • Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
    • Rutgers University
    • Rutgers University, New Brunswick

  • Deepti Jain

    • Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
    • Physics, Rutgers University
    • Rutgers University, New Brunswick
    • Rutgers University

  • Seongshik Oh

    • Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
    • Center for Quantum Materials Synthesis and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
    • Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
    • Physics, Rutgers University
    • Physics, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
    • Rutgers University
    • Rutgers University - New Brunswick

  • Marc Kastner

    • Stanford University

  • Shaffique Adam

    • Department of Physics and Centre for Advanced 2D Materials, National University of Singapore
    • Centre for Advanced 2D Materials and Graphene Research Centre, National University of Singapore
    • Department of Physics, National University of Singapore
    • Yale-NUS College
    • National University of Singapore

  • David Goldhaber-Gordon

    • Stanford University
    • Department of Physics, Stanford University
    • Stanford University, USA
    • Physics, Stanford University