Differentiation of surface and bulk conductivities in topological insulator via four-probe spectroscopy
Abstract
Topological insulators, with characteristic topological surface states, have emerged as a new state of matter with rich potentials for both fundamental physics and device applications. However, the experimental detection of the surface transport has been hampered by the unavoidable extrinsic conductivity associated with the bulk crystals. Here we show that a four-probe transport spectroscopy in a multi-probe scanning tunneling microscopy system can be used to differentiate conductivities from the surface states and the coexisting bulk states in topological insulators. We derive a scaling relation of measured resistance with respect to varying inter-probe spacing for two interconnected conduction channels, which allows quantitative determination of conductivities from both channels. Using this method, we demonstrate the separation of 2D and 3D conduction in topological insulators by comparing the conductance scaling of Bi2Se3, Bi2Te2Se, and Sb-doped Bi2Se3 with that of a pure 2D conductance of graphene on SiC substrate. We also report the 2D conductance enhancement due to the surface doping effect in topological insulators. This technique can be applied to reveal 2D to 3D crossover of conductance in other complex systems.
- Authors:
-
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Univ. of Florida, Gainesville, FL (United States)
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1256807
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Nano Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 16; Journal Issue: 4; Journal ID: ISSN 1530-6984
- Publisher:
- American Chemical Society
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; four-probe transport spectroscopy; topological insulator; electrical transport; dimensionality crossover; topological surface states; scanning tunneling microscopy
Citation Formats
Zhang, Xiaoguang, McGuire, Michael A., Chen, Yong P., Li, An -Ping, Durand, Corentin, Hus, Saban M., Ma, Chuanxu, Hu, Yang, Cao, Helin, and Miotkowski, Ireneusz. Differentiation of surface and bulk conductivities in topological insulator via four-probe spectroscopy. United States: N. p., 2016.
Web. doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b04425.
Zhang, Xiaoguang, McGuire, Michael A., Chen, Yong P., Li, An -Ping, Durand, Corentin, Hus, Saban M., Ma, Chuanxu, Hu, Yang, Cao, Helin, & Miotkowski, Ireneusz. Differentiation of surface and bulk conductivities in topological insulator via four-probe spectroscopy. United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b04425
Zhang, Xiaoguang, McGuire, Michael A., Chen, Yong P., Li, An -Ping, Durand, Corentin, Hus, Saban M., Ma, Chuanxu, Hu, Yang, Cao, Helin, and Miotkowski, Ireneusz. Tue .
"Differentiation of surface and bulk conductivities in topological insulator via four-probe spectroscopy". United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b04425. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1256807.
@article{osti_1256807,
title = {Differentiation of surface and bulk conductivities in topological insulator via four-probe spectroscopy},
author = {Zhang, Xiaoguang and McGuire, Michael A. and Chen, Yong P. and Li, An -Ping and Durand, Corentin and Hus, Saban M. and Ma, Chuanxu and Hu, Yang and Cao, Helin and Miotkowski, Ireneusz},
abstractNote = {Topological insulators, with characteristic topological surface states, have emerged as a new state of matter with rich potentials for both fundamental physics and device applications. However, the experimental detection of the surface transport has been hampered by the unavoidable extrinsic conductivity associated with the bulk crystals. Here we show that a four-probe transport spectroscopy in a multi-probe scanning tunneling microscopy system can be used to differentiate conductivities from the surface states and the coexisting bulk states in topological insulators. We derive a scaling relation of measured resistance with respect to varying inter-probe spacing for two interconnected conduction channels, which allows quantitative determination of conductivities from both channels. Using this method, we demonstrate the separation of 2D and 3D conduction in topological insulators by comparing the conductance scaling of Bi2Se3, Bi2Te2Se, and Sb-doped Bi2Se3 with that of a pure 2D conductance of graphene on SiC substrate. We also report the 2D conductance enhancement due to the surface doping effect in topological insulators. This technique can be applied to reveal 2D to 3D crossover of conductance in other complex systems.},
doi = {10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b04425},
journal = {Nano Letters},
number = 4,
volume = 16,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Mar 08 00:00:00 EST 2016},
month = {Tue Mar 08 00:00:00 EST 2016}
}
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