Resistivity of Surface Steps in Bulk-Insulating Topological Insulators

Ko, Wonhee; Hus, Saban; Kim, Hoil; Kim, Jun Sung; Zhang, Xiao-Guang; Li, An-Ping

doi:10.3389/fmats.2022.887484

Resistivity of Surface Steps in Bulk-Insulating Topological Insulators

Journal Article · Thu May 19 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · Frontiers in Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3389/fmats.2022.887484· OSTI ID:1879953

^[1]; ^[1]; Kim, Hoil ^[2]; Kim, Jun Sung ^[2]; Zhang, Xiao-Guang ^[3]; ^[1]

Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Pohang Univ. of Science and Technology (POSTECH) (Korea, Republic of); Inst. of Basic Science, Pohang (Korea, Republic of)
Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States)

Electron transport in topological insulators usually involves both topologically protected surface states and trivial electronic states in the bulk material. The surface transport is particularly interesting; however, it is also susceptible to atomic defects on the surfaces, such as vacancies, impurities, and step edges. Experimental determination of scattering effects of these surface defects requires both nanoscale spatial resolution and the ability to decipher surface transport from bulk transport. Here we directly measure the resistivity of individual surface steps in the surface dominating transport process of topological insulator Bi₂Te₂Se. A variable probe-spacing transport spectroscopy with a multiprobe scanning tunneling microscope is used to differentiate the surface conductance from bulk conductance, allowing the identification of a surface dominant transport regime. The technique also reveals a deviation from ideal 2D transport at atomic steps. Then, a multi-probe scanning tunneling potentiometry is employed to visualize the electrochemical potentials across individual step edges. A quantitative analysis of the potential distributions enables us to acquire a resistivity of 0.530 mΩ · cm for the one quintuple-layer atomic step. The result indicates that atomic defects, despite preserving the time-reversal symmetry, can still significantly affect the transport in topological insulators.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) (United States). Center for Molecular Magnetic Quantum Materials (M2QM); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: Institute for Basic Science (IBS); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities Division

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725; SC0019330

OSTI ID:: 1879953

Journal Information:: Frontiers in Materials, Journal Name: Frontiers in Materials Vol. 9; ISSN 2296-8016

Publisher:: Frontiers Research FoundationCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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