Accessing the Intrinsic Spin Transport in a Topological Insulator by Controlling the Crossover of Bulk-to-Surface Conductance

Ko, Wonhee; Nguyen, Giang D.; Kim, Hoil; Kim, Jun Sung; Zhang, X.-G.; Li, An-Ping

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.176801

Title: Accessing the Intrinsic Spin Transport in a Topological Insulator by Controlling the Crossover of Bulk-to-Surface Conductance

Journal Article · Wed Oct 24 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.176801· OSTI ID:1493127

^[1];

^[1]; Kim, Hoil ^[2]; Kim, Jun Sung ^[2]; Zhang, X.-G. ^[3];

^[1]

Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Science (CNMS)
Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Korea
University of Florida, Gainesville

Here we report a method to control contributions of bulk and surface states in the topological insulator Bi₂Te₂Se that allows accessing the spin-polarized transport endowed by topological surface states. An intrinsic surface dominant transport is established when cooling the sample to low temperature or reducing the conduction channel length, both achieved in situ in the transport measurements with a four-probe scanning tunneling microscope without the need of further tailoring the sample. The topological surface states show characteristic transport behaviors with mobility about an order of magnitude higher than reported before, and a spin polarization approaching the theoretically predicted value. Our result demonstrates accessibility to the intrinsic high mobility spin transport of topological surface states, which paves a way to realizing topological spintronic devices.

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Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725

OSTI ID:: 1493127

Journal Information:: Physical Review Letters, Vol. 121, Issue 17; ISSN 0031-9007

Publisher:: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 11 works

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Cited By (3)

Atomic‐Scale Manipulation and In Situ Characterization with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Ko, Wonhee; Ma, Chuanxu; Nguyen, Giang D. Advanced Functional Materials, Vol. 29, Issue 52 https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201903770	journal	October 2019
Electronic transport in planar atomic-scale structures measured by two-probe scanning tunneling spectroscopy Kolmer, Marek; Brandimarte, Pedro; Lis, Jakub Nature Communications, Vol. 10, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09315-6	journal	April 2019
Millimetre-long transport of photogenerated carriers in topological insulators Hou, Yasen; Wang, Rui; Xiao, Rui Nature Communications, Vol. 10, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-13711-3	journal	December 2019

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