Probing the mesoscopic size limit of quantum anomalous Hall insulators

Deng, Peng; Eckberg, Christopher; Zhang, Peng; Qiu, Gang; Emmanouilidou, Eve; Yin, Gen; Chong, Su Kong; Tai, Lixuan; Ni, Ni; Wang, Kang L.

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-31105-w

Title: Probing the mesoscopic size limit of quantum anomalous Hall insulators

Journal Article · 21 July 2022 · Nature Communications

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31105-w · OSTI ID:1877410

Deng, Peng ^[1];

^[2]; Zhang, Peng ^[1];

^[1]; Emmanouilidou, Eve ^[1]; Yin, Gen ^[1]; Chong, Su Kong ^[1]; Tai, Lixuan ^[1];

^[1];

^[1]

Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
Fibertek Inc., Herndon, VA (United States); Army Research Lab., Adelphi, MD and Playa Vista, CA (United States)

The inelastic scattering length (L_s) is a length scale of fundamental importance in condensed matters due to the relationship between inelastic scattering and quantum dephasing. In quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) materials, the mesoscopic length scale L_s plays an instrumental role in determining transport properties. Here we examine L_s in three regimes of the QAH system with distinct transport behaviors: the QAH, quantum critical, and insulating regimes. Although the resistance changes by five orders of magnitude when tuning between these distinct electronic phases, scaling analyses indicate a universal L_s among all regimes. Finally, mesoscopic scaled devices with sizes on the order of L_s were fabricated, enabling the direct detection of the value of L_s in QAH samples. Our results unveil the fundamental length scale that governs the transport behavior of QAH materials.

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Research Organization:: University of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Science Foundation (NSF); US Army Research Office (ARO); USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0021117

OSTI ID:: 1877410

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 13; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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