Transport property of topological crystalline insulator SnTe (100) and ferrimagnetic insulator heterostructures

Abstract

• High quality SnTe/RE3Fe5O12 (RE=Eu, Y) epitaxial heterostructures were prepared. • Domain disorder is induced by Fe atom diffusion in SnTe through magnetic interface. • Two different magnetoelectrical transport in two heterostructures are observed. • Linear magnetoresistance and nonlinear Hall appear in SnTe/Eu 3 Fe 5 O 12 . Topological crystalline insulator (TCI) SnTe is a potential material for quantum electronic devices because of its attractive inherent sensitivity of band topology and highly mobile characteristic of Dirac fermions. The proximity effect at the interface of SnTe film can affect the topological surface transport and may result in novel quantum magneto-electric effects. Here, we study the magnetoelectrical transport properties of SnTe thin films grown on ferrimagnetic insulators Eu 3 Fe 5 O 12 (110) (EuIG (110)) and Y 3 Fe 5 O 12 (111) (YIG (111)) single-crystal underlayers by molecular beam epitaxy. Linear magnetic resistance (LMR) is observed in SnTe/EuIG heterostructures in the low field range, which is different from the weak antilocalization (WAL) characteristic of SnTe/YIG heterostructures. Especially, the double carrier characteristic with the coexistence of holes and electrons in SnTe/EuIG heterostructure is quite different from the holes as main carriers in SnTe/YIG, although the SnTe layer remains the same crystal plane (100) in the two heterostructures. The LMR in SnTe/EuIG is attributed to the topological surface Dirac electrons and disordered domain distribution in the SnTe layer which is in sharp contrast to the WAL of SnTe/YIG with ordered domain distribution in the SnTe layer. The present studies of transport properties not only provide a fundamental understanding of the transport mechanism of TCI and magnetite insulator heterostructure but also display the promising application probability for tunable topological electronic devices.