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Title: Quantum-Hall to Insulator Transition in Ultra-Low-Carrier-Density Topological Insulator Films and a Hidden Phase of the Zeroth Landau Level

Abstract

A key feature of the topological surface state under a magnetic field is the presence of the zeroth Landau level at the zero energy. Nonetheless, it is challenging to probe the zeroth Landau level due to large electron-hole puddles smearing its energy landscape. Furthermore, by developing ultra-low-carrier density topological insulator Sb2Te3 films, an extreme quantum limit of the topological surface state is reached and a hidden phase at the zeroth Landau level is uncovered. First, an unexpected quantum-Hall-to-insulator-transition near the zeroth Landau level is discovered. Then, through a detailed scaling analysis, it is found that this quantum-Hall-to-insulator-transition belongs to a new universality class, implying that the insulating phase discovered here has a fundamentally different origin from those in nontopological systems.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [5]; ORCiD logo [1]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Rutgers, The State Univ. of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ (United States)
  2. Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, IL (United States)
  3. Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States); SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
  4. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
  5. SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States); Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1566877
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1530473
Report Number(s):
BNL-212137-2019-JAAM
Journal ID: ISSN 0935-9648
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0012704; AC02−98CH10886; AC02‐76SF00515
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Advanced Materials
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 31; Journal Issue: 36; Journal ID: ISSN 0935-9648
Publisher:
Wiley
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; quantum Hall effect; quantum Hall to insulator transition; scaling analysis; topological insulator thin‐films; zeroth Landau level

Citation Formats

Salehi, Maryam, Shapourian, Hassan, Rosen, Ilan Thomas, Han, Myung‐Geun, Moon, Jisoo, Shibayev, Pavel, Jain, Deepti, Goldhaber‐Gordon, David, and Oh, Seongshik. Quantum-Hall to Insulator Transition in Ultra-Low-Carrier-Density Topological Insulator Films and a Hidden Phase of the Zeroth Landau Level. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1002/adma.201901091.
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Salehi, Maryam, Shapourian, Hassan, Rosen, Ilan Thomas, Han, Myung‐Geun, Moon, Jisoo, Shibayev, Pavel, Jain, Deepti, Goldhaber‐Gordon, David, & Oh, Seongshik. Quantum-Hall to Insulator Transition in Ultra-Low-Carrier-Density Topological Insulator Films and a Hidden Phase of the Zeroth Landau Level. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201901091
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Salehi, Maryam, Shapourian, Hassan, Rosen, Ilan Thomas, Han, Myung‐Geun, Moon, Jisoo, Shibayev, Pavel, Jain, Deepti, Goldhaber‐Gordon, David, and Oh, Seongshik. Mon . "Quantum-Hall to Insulator Transition in Ultra-Low-Carrier-Density Topological Insulator Films and a Hidden Phase of the Zeroth Landau Level". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201901091. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1566877.
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@article{osti_1566877,
title = {Quantum-Hall to Insulator Transition in Ultra-Low-Carrier-Density Topological Insulator Films and a Hidden Phase of the Zeroth Landau Level},
author = {Salehi, Maryam and Shapourian, Hassan and Rosen, Ilan Thomas and Han, Myung‐Geun and Moon, Jisoo and Shibayev, Pavel and Jain, Deepti and Goldhaber‐Gordon, David and Oh, Seongshik},
abstractNote = {A key feature of the topological surface state under a magnetic field is the presence of the zeroth Landau level at the zero energy. Nonetheless, it is challenging to probe the zeroth Landau level due to large electron-hole puddles smearing its energy landscape. Furthermore, by developing ultra-low-carrier density topological insulator Sb2Te3 films, an extreme quantum limit of the topological surface state is reached and a hidden phase at the zeroth Landau level is uncovered. First, an unexpected quantum-Hall-to-insulator-transition near the zeroth Landau level is discovered. Then, through a detailed scaling analysis, it is found that this quantum-Hall-to-insulator-transition belongs to a new universality class, implying that the insulating phase discovered here has a fundamentally different origin from those in nontopological systems.},
doi = {10.1002/adma.201901091},
journal = {Advanced Materials},
number = 36,
volume = 31,
place = {United States},
year = {2019},
month = {7}
}
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Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201901091
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Cited by: 7 works
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Figures / Tables:

Figure 1 Figure 1: Structure of an ultra-low-carrier-density Sb2Te3 film. a) Schematic of the film structure which consists of 20QL In2Se3 grown on Al2O3(0001) substrate, using a sacrificial seed layer of Bi2Se3, followed by growth of 15QL (Sb0.65In0.35)2Te3 buffer layer as a template for the successive layer of ultra-low-carrier-density Ti-doped Sb2Te3. Finally,more » the whole film is capped by 15QL (Sb0.65In0.35)2Te3 (see Reference [12], Method section, and Supporting Information for more detail on growth). b) The first panel shows high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM) for 20QL-In2Se3/5QL-(Sb0.65In0.35)2Te3/5QL-Sb2Te3/5QL(Sb0.65In0.35)2Te3 with an additional 10 nm Te capping to protect the whole super-lattice against the STEM sample preparation processes. Yellow dashed lines drawn at each interface are guides to the eye. The rightward four panels show the elemental mapping energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) images for In (light blue), Sb (green), Te (dark blue), and Se (red). If a specific element is present in a layer, then the corresponding color appears bright in that section; in its absence, the layer appears dark. For instance, Sb2Te3 contains Te and thus appears as bright blue in the fourth panel, but it lacks Se and thus appears as dark in the fifth panel.« less
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    Works referencing / citing this record:

    The Material Efforts for Quantized Hall Devices Based on Topological Insulators
    journal, December 2019

    Synthesis and resistivity of topological metal MoP nanostructures
    journal, January 2020

    • Han, Hyeuk Jin; Hynek, David; Wu, Zishan
    • APL Materials, Vol. 8, Issue 1
    • DOI: 10.1063/1.5130159
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