Transport Studies of Mesoscopic and Magnetic Topological Insulators

Transport Studies of Mesoscopic and Magnetic Topological Insulators PDF Author: Abhinav Kandala
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Topological Insulators (TI) are a novel class of materials that are ideally insulating in the bulk, but have gapless, metallic states at the surface. These surface states have very exciting properties such as suppressed backscattering and spin-momentum locking, which are of great interest for research efforts towards dissipation-less electronics and spintronics. The popular thermo-electrics from the Bi chalcogenide family -- Bi2Se3 and Bi2Te3 -- have been experimentally demonstrated to be promising candidate TI materials, and form the chosen material system for this dissertation research. The first part of this dissertation research focuses on low temperature magneto-transport measurements of mesoscopic topological insulator devices (Chapter 3). The top-down patterning of epitaxial thin films of Bi2Se3 and Bi2Te3 (that are plagued with bulk conduction) is motivated, in part, by an effort to enhance the surface-to-volume ratio in mesoscopic channels. At cryogenic temperatures, transport measurements of these devices reveal periodic conductance fluctuations in straight channel devices, despite the lack of any explicit patterning of the TI film into a ring or a loop. A careful analysis of the surface morphology and comparison with the transport data then demonstrate that scattering off the edges of triangular plateaus at the surface leads to the creation of Aharonov-Bohm electronic orbits responsible for the periodicity. Another major focus of this dissertation work is on combining topological insulators with magnetism. This has been shown to open a gap in the surface states leading to possibilities of magnetic "gating" and the realization of dissipation-less transport at zero-field, amongst several other exotic quantum phenomena. In this dissertation, I present two different schemes for probing these effects in electrical transport devices -- interfacing with insulating ferromagnets (Chapter 4) and bulk magnetic doping (Chapter 5). In Chapter 4, I shall present the integration of GdN with Bi2Se3 thin films. Careful structural, magnetic and electrical characterization of the heterostructures is employed to confirm that the magnetic species is solely restricted to the surface, and that the ferromagnetic GdN layer to be insulating, ensuring current flow solely through the TI layer. We also devise a novel device geometry that enables direct comparison of the magneto-transport properties of TI films with and without proximate magnetism, all, in a single device. A comparative study of weak anti-localization suggested that the overlying GdN suppressed quantum interference in the top surface state. In our second generation hetero-structure devices, GdN is interfaced with low-carrier density, gate-tunable thin films of (Bi,Sb)2Te3 grown on SrTiO3 substrates. These devices enable us to map out the comparison of magneto-transport, as the chemical potential is tuned from the bulk conduction band into the bulk valence band.In a second approach to study the effects of magnetism on TI's, I shall present, in Chapter 5, our results from magnetic doping of (Bi,Sb)2Te3 thin films with Cr -- a system that was recently demonstrated to be a Quantum Anomalous Hall (QAH) insulator. In a Cr-rich regime, a highly insulating, high Curie temperature ferromagnetic phase is achieved. However, a careful, iterative process of tuning the composition of this complex alloy enabled access to the QAHE regime, with the observation of near dissipation-less transport and perfect Hall quantization at zero external field. Furthermore, we demonstrate a field tilt driven crossover between a quantum anomalous Hall phase and a gapless, ferromagnetic TI phase. This crossover manifests itself in an electrically tunable, giant anisotropic magneto-resistance effect that we employ as a quantitative probe of edge transport in this system.

Transport Studies of Mesoscopic and Magnetic Topological Insulators

Transport Studies of Mesoscopic and Magnetic Topological Insulators PDF Author: Abhinav Kandala
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book Here

Book Description
Topological Insulators (TI) are a novel class of materials that are ideally insulating in the bulk, but have gapless, metallic states at the surface. These surface states have very exciting properties such as suppressed backscattering and spin-momentum locking, which are of great interest for research efforts towards dissipation-less electronics and spintronics. The popular thermo-electrics from the Bi chalcogenide family -- Bi2Se3 and Bi2Te3 -- have been experimentally demonstrated to be promising candidate TI materials, and form the chosen material system for this dissertation research. The first part of this dissertation research focuses on low temperature magneto-transport measurements of mesoscopic topological insulator devices (Chapter 3). The top-down patterning of epitaxial thin films of Bi2Se3 and Bi2Te3 (that are plagued with bulk conduction) is motivated, in part, by an effort to enhance the surface-to-volume ratio in mesoscopic channels. At cryogenic temperatures, transport measurements of these devices reveal periodic conductance fluctuations in straight channel devices, despite the lack of any explicit patterning of the TI film into a ring or a loop. A careful analysis of the surface morphology and comparison with the transport data then demonstrate that scattering off the edges of triangular plateaus at the surface leads to the creation of Aharonov-Bohm electronic orbits responsible for the periodicity. Another major focus of this dissertation work is on combining topological insulators with magnetism. This has been shown to open a gap in the surface states leading to possibilities of magnetic "gating" and the realization of dissipation-less transport at zero-field, amongst several other exotic quantum phenomena. In this dissertation, I present two different schemes for probing these effects in electrical transport devices -- interfacing with insulating ferromagnets (Chapter 4) and bulk magnetic doping (Chapter 5). In Chapter 4, I shall present the integration of GdN with Bi2Se3 thin films. Careful structural, magnetic and electrical characterization of the heterostructures is employed to confirm that the magnetic species is solely restricted to the surface, and that the ferromagnetic GdN layer to be insulating, ensuring current flow solely through the TI layer. We also devise a novel device geometry that enables direct comparison of the magneto-transport properties of TI films with and without proximate magnetism, all, in a single device. A comparative study of weak anti-localization suggested that the overlying GdN suppressed quantum interference in the top surface state. In our second generation hetero-structure devices, GdN is interfaced with low-carrier density, gate-tunable thin films of (Bi,Sb)2Te3 grown on SrTiO3 substrates. These devices enable us to map out the comparison of magneto-transport, as the chemical potential is tuned from the bulk conduction band into the bulk valence band.In a second approach to study the effects of magnetism on TI's, I shall present, in Chapter 5, our results from magnetic doping of (Bi,Sb)2Te3 thin films with Cr -- a system that was recently demonstrated to be a Quantum Anomalous Hall (QAH) insulator. In a Cr-rich regime, a highly insulating, high Curie temperature ferromagnetic phase is achieved. However, a careful, iterative process of tuning the composition of this complex alloy enabled access to the QAHE regime, with the observation of near dissipation-less transport and perfect Hall quantization at zero external field. Furthermore, we demonstrate a field tilt driven crossover between a quantum anomalous Hall phase and a gapless, ferromagnetic TI phase. This crossover manifests itself in an electrically tunable, giant anisotropic magneto-resistance effect that we employ as a quantitative probe of edge transport in this system.

Transport Studies of the Electrical, Magnetic and Thermoelectric properties of Topological Insulator Thin Films

Transport Studies of the Electrical, Magnetic and Thermoelectric properties of Topological Insulator Thin Films PDF Author: Jinsong Zhang
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3662499274
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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Book Description
This book presents the transport studies of topological insulator thin films grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Through band structure engineering, the ideal topological insulators, (Bi1−xSbx)2Te3 ternary alloys, are successfully fabricated, which possess truly insulating bulk and tunable conducting surface states. Further transport measurements on these ternary alloys reveal a disentanglement between the magnetoelectric and thermoelectric properties. In magnetically doped topological insulators, the fascinating quantum anomalous Hall effect was experimentally observed for the first time. Moreover, the topology-driven magnetic quantum phase transition was Systematically controlled by varying the strength of the spin-orbital coupling. Readers will not only benefit from the description of the technique of transport measurements, but will also be inspired by the understanding of topological insulators.

Spintronics Handbook, Second Edition: Spin Transport and Magnetism

Spintronics Handbook, Second Edition: Spin Transport and Magnetism PDF Author: Evgeny Y. Tsymbal
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 0429784384
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 619

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Book Description
The second edition offers an update on the single most comprehensive survey of the two intertwined fields of spintronics and magnetism, covering the diverse array of materials and structures, including silicon, organic semiconductors, carbon nanotubes, graphene, and engineered nanostructures. It focuses on seminal pioneering work, together with the latest in cutting-edge advances, notably extended discussion of two-dimensional materials beyond graphene, topological insulators, skyrmions, and molecular spintronics. The main sections cover physical phenomena, spin-dependent tunneling, control of spin and magnetism in semiconductors, and spin-based applications.

Emergent Transport Properties of Magnetic Topological Insulator Heterostructures

Emergent Transport Properties of Magnetic Topological Insulator Heterostructures PDF Author: Kenji Yasuda
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 981157183X
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 109

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Book Description
This book reveals unique transport phenomena and functionalities in topological insulators coupled with magnetism and superconductivity. Topological insulators are a recently discovered class of materials that possess a spin-momentum-locked surface state. Their exotic spin texture makes them an exciting platform for investigating emergent phenomena, especially when coupled with magnetism or superconductivity. Focusing on the strong correlation between electricity and magnetism in magnetic topological insulators, the author presents original findings on current-direction-dependent nonreciprocal resistance, current-induced magnetization reversal and chiral edge conduction at the domain wall. In addition, he demonstrates how the coupling between superconductivity and topological surface state leads to substantial nonreciprocal resistance. The author also elucidates the origins of these phenomena and deepens readers’ understanding of the topologically nontrivial electronic state. The book includes several works which are published in top journals and were selected for the President’s Award by the University of Tokyo and for the Ikushi Prize, awarded to distinguished Ph.D. students in Japan.

Quantized Phenomena of Transport and Magneto-Optics in Magnetic Topological Insulator Heterostructures

Quantized Phenomena of Transport and Magneto-Optics in Magnetic Topological Insulator Heterostructures PDF Author: Masataka Mogi
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811921377
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 120

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Book Description
This book presents experimental studies on emergent transport and magneto-optical properties in three-dimensional topological insulators with two-dimensional Dirac fermions on their surfaces. Designing magnetic heterostructures utilizing a cutting-edge growth technique (molecular beam epitaxy) stabilizes and manifests new quantization phenomena, as confirmed by low-temperature electrical transport and time-domain terahertz magneto-optical measurements. Starting with a review of the theoretical background and recent experimental advances in topological insulators in terms of a novel magneto-electric coupling, the author subsequently explores their magnetic quantum properties and reveals topological phase transitions between quantum anomalous Hall insulator and trivial insulator phases; a new topological phase (the axion insulator); and a half-integer quantum Hall state associated with the quantum parity anomaly. Furthermore, the author shows how these quantum phases can be significantly stabilized via magnetic modulation doping and proximity coupling with a normal ferromagnetic insulator. These findings provide a basis for future technologies such as ultra-low energy consumption electronic devices and fault-tolerant topological quantum computers.

Topological Insulators

Topological Insulators PDF Author: Gregory Tkachov
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 9814613266
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
This book is the result of dynamic developments that have occurred in condensed matter physics after the recent discovery of a new class of electronic materials: topological insulators. A topological insulator is a material that behaves as a band insulator in its interior, while acting as a metallic conductor at its surface. The surface current car

Topological Insulators

Topological Insulators PDF Author: Jeroen B. Oostinga
Publisher: Elsevier Inc. Chapters
ISBN: 0128086890
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 48

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Book Description
The discovery of topological insulators as a new state of matter has generated immense interest in this new class of materials. Three-dimensional (3D) topological insulators are characterized by the presence of an odd number of families of Dirac fermions—ideally one- at each of their surfaces. Angle-resolved photoemission experiments have demonstrated the presence of the expected Dirac fermions, but it is clear that to explore the electronic properties of these systems, transport measurements in many different device geometries are called for, just as it has been the case for Dirac fermions in graphene. In this chapter we review the status of transport studies through 3D topological insulators as of early summer 2012, after that a first generation of experiments has been performed. The results provide many different indications of the presence of surface fermions, as well as evidence of their Dirac nature. However, no textbook “manifestation” of surface Dirac fermions has been reported so far in these materials. Indeed, experiments also show that investigations are severely hampered by the material quality in most cases, because of the effect of high conductivity in the bulk, of low carrier mobility, of technical difficulties hampering device fabrication, and other reasons. In this chapter, we attempt to give a balanced overview of the work done during this first period and of the results obtained, stressing the implications and the limits of many of the observations that have been reported in the literature.

Quantum Transport in Two-dimensional Topological Systems

Quantum Transport in Two-dimensional Topological Systems PDF Author: Jianxiao Zhang
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
The discovery of topological states of matters has sparked intense interests amongresearchers in the past decade. Topologically non-trivial band structure in thesequantum states can give rise to a variety of topological phenomena, the experimentaldemonstration of which can have a huge impact on our understandingof fundamental states of matter. Transport measurement is one of the majorexperimental techniques to probe these topological phenomena. This dissertationis devoted to theoretical and numerical studies of quantum transport phenomenain a variety of topological materials, including magnetic topological insulator films,the quantum anomalous Hall insulator/superconductor hetero-structures, the kinkstates in bilayer graphene and the photonic crystal of topological mirror insulatorphase in the optical regime. The numerical simulations of transport phenomenaand the analytical understanding of the underlying physical mechanism in thisdissertation will provide guidance for the future transport measurements.The numerical methods to simulate quantum transport in this dissertation arebased on Landauer-Bttiker formalism and Greens function method, which willbe introduced in Chapter 2. The transmission through certain sample regionscan be extracted from the Greens function method and serves as the input forthe Landauer-Bttiker formalism to compute conductance tensor that is directlymeasured in transport experiments. Physical understanding of the transportmechanism can be provided by analyzing different components of the transmissionmatrix, in combination with other analytical methods for transport phenomena.Defects and impurities can be incorporated in numerical simulations by includingrandom potentials into the model Hamiltonian, and thus this method can be appliedin different transport regimes, from ballistic to diffusive transport.Chapter 3 to 5 of the dissertation is to apply the above numerical methodsto three different topological mesoscopic systems: magnetic topological insulator(MTI) films, quantum anomalous Hall insulator (QAHI) - superconductor (SC)junctions, and bilayer graphene devices.Chapter 3 is dedicated to the study of quantum transport through magnetictextures in a thin film of MTI. We focus on both the longitudinal and Hall transports,which reveal complicated features due to the coexistence of strong spin-orbit couplingfrom TI materials and magnetic non-colinearity from magnetic textures in thissystem. The manifested Hall transport can be induced by different topologicalmechanisms, including the intrinsic anomalous Hall effect from strong SOC and thetopological Hall effect (or known as geometric Hall effect) from magnetic textures.Thus, this system provides a nice platform to understand the interplay betweenspin-orbit coupling and real-space magnetic texture, as well as disorder scatterings.Our numerical simulations have shown different roles of spin-orbit coupling in theclean and disordered limits for this system. In the clean limit when SOC strengthis increased, the topological Hall conductance (THC) almost remains constant butthe topological Hall resistance (THR) can increase by an order of magnitude dueto the reduction of longitudinal conductance, caused by SOC-induced spin flips.However, in the disordered limit, both the THC and THR increase with increasingSOC, while longitudinal conductance is not influenced much by SOC.In Chapter 4, we study the transport of chiral edge channels in a QAHI/superconductorjunction. This type of hetero-junction has been recently fabricated andmeasured in experiments, in pursue of topological superconductivity and Majoranafermions. We focus on the disorder effect in the weak superconductor proximitylimit. Our results show that the quantized valued of conductance remains robustfor a single chiral edge channel even in the presence of disorder in the zero-biaslimit. However, such quantization is broken down for a finite bias, or for multiplechiral edge modes, or for the coexistence of a single chiral edge mode with othertrivial metallic modes, when disorders are present. Our theory provides guidanceto understand transport phenomena in these systems for future experiments.Chapter 5 is a simulation of transport behaviors through the so-called kinkstates in a bilayer graphene device under external electric and magnetic fields. Thedevice, known as a valley valve and electron beam splitter, has been fabricatedby our experimental collaborators and its unusual transport properties have beenmeasured experimentally. Our numerical simulations provide a justification of theguiding center physical picture for topological transport through this device.Chapter 6 goes beyond electronic systems and concerns topological phase inphotonic systems. We utilize a method of dynamic evolution of states to studya topological crystalline insulator phase in a photonic system. The crystallineprotection, achieved by the fine manufacturing of emulated atoms in a photoniclattice, selectively pumps incident states with a certain parity while reflects theother.The studies in the dissertation are in close collaboration with experimentalgroups, including Prof. Moses Chans and Prof. Cui-zu Changs group for the transportmeasurements in MTI films and QAHI/SC junctions, Prof. Jun Zhus groupfor the experiments on the bilayer graphene device, and Prof. Mikael Rechtsmansgroup for the photonic topological systems.

Topological Insulator and Magnetically Doped Topological Insulator Thin Films by Molecular Beam Epitaxy

Topological Insulator and Magnetically Doped Topological Insulator Thin Films by Molecular Beam Epitaxy PDF Author: Shuang Li
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Searching for energy dissipation-less systems has become increasingly important for low power electronic devices. Topological insulators, a new topological state of quantum matter, have recently been proposed as an emerging material for use in low power electronics, because of the unique transport along its topologically protected edge/surface states. In addition, it has been predicted that the incorporation of magnetic elements into topological insulators could lead to the quantum anomalous Hall state, which is a truly dissipation-less system. However, the material quality of topological insulator thin films remains as a major stumbling block for exploring the novel physics of topological insulators and their proposed applications. In the first part of this thesis, I will first describe an advanced thin film deposition technique, molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and the mini-MBE system we designed and built for topological insulator thin film growth. Then I will briefly illustrate some basic principles and sample preparation methods for a variety of characterization techniques we used for the material property investigation. In the second part of this thesis, I will present the growth and characterization of topological insulator bismuth telluride thin films grown by a two-step MBE process developed as part of this research. By optimizing the growth recipe and particularly developing the two-step growth method, defect densities were significantly reduced and higher crystal and surface quality bismuth telluride thin films were achieved. The existence of a topological surface state on our bismuth telluride thin films was also confirmed. The Fermi level of our bismuth telluride thin film was tuned to very close to the bulk gap region. The successful growth of centimeter-sized, uniform, high quality topological insulator thin films provides an excellent platform for both fundamental studies of the properties of topological insulators and fabrications of mesoscopic devices. Finally, I will report on the first successful growth of gadolinium substituted bismuth telluride thin films with high Gd concentrations by MBE. We systematically investigated the crystal structure, band structure, magnetic, and electronic properties of gadolinium substituted bismuth telluride thin films. The topological surface state was found to remain intact by Gd substitution into bismuth telluride. Although ferromagnetic behavior in gadolinium substituted bismuth telluride thin films was not observed above 2K by both magnetic and magneto-transport measurements, gadolinium substituted bismuth telluride thin films were found to have a Curie susceptibility due to the paramagnetic Gd ions with an atomic magnetic moment of 6.93 Bohr magneton per Gd ion, which suggests that it is possible to realize dissipation-less transport with a small external magnetic field or with a ferromagnetic layer on top of gadolinium substituted bismuth telluride thin films.

Topological Insulators

Topological Insulators PDF Author: Panagiotis Kotetes
Publisher: Morgan & Claypool Publishers
ISBN: 1681745178
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
This book provides an introduction to topological matter with a focus on insulating bulk systems. A number of prerequisite concepts and tools are first laid out, including the notion of symmetry transformations, the band theory of semiconductors and aspects of electronic transport. The main part of the book discusses realistic models for both time-reversal-preserving and -violating topological insulators, as well as their characteristic responses to external perturbations. Special emphasis is given to the study of the anomalous electric, thermal, and thermoelectric transport properties, the theory of orbital magnetisation, and the polar Kerr effect. The topological models studied throughout this book become unified and generalised by means of the tenfold topological-classification framework and the respective systematic construction of topological invariants. This approach is further extended to topological superconductors and topological semimetals. This book covers a wide range of topics and aims at the transparent presentation of the technical aspects involved. For this purpose, homework problems are also provided in dedicated Hands-on sections. Given its structure and the required background level of the reader, this book is particularly recommended for graduate students or researchers who are new to the field.