Abstract
We grew single-crystal thin films of a topological crystalline insulator (TCI) SnTe with a smooth surface at the atomic scale by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). In the magnetoresistance (MR) measurement, we observed both positive and negative components near zero magnetic field at lowest temperatures of 2 - 3 K, while we observed only a negative MR at elevated temperatures of 6 - 10 K. The positive MR is attributed to the weak antilocalization (WAL) in the transport through the topological surface state (SS), demonstrating π berry phase which is essential to the topological SS, while the negative MR to the weak localization (WL) in the transport through the bulk state (two-dimensional bulk subbbands). The absolute value of the prefactor a deduced from the fitting of the observed positive MR to the Hikami-Larkin-Nagaoka equation was much smaller than expected from the number of transport channel of the SS, suggesting the coupling of the SS to the bulk state.
Highlights
Topological insulator (TI) is a new class of materials
Recent explorations of TIs have opened the door of a new type of TIs, that is, topological crystalline insulators (TCIs), in which the topological surface state (SS) is protected by the mirror symmetry of the crystal[6][7], instead of the time-reversal symmetry
Summary We investigated the MR in the SnTe(111) thin film at low temperatures in order to clarify the properties of the SS of TCIs from the viewpoint of electrical transport
Summary
Topological insulator (TI) is a new class of materials. The surface state (SS) of TIs has a band structure of Dirac-cone shape where the spin of carriers is locked with their momentum except for k=0[1]. We investigated the magneto-transport properties in a SnTe(111) thin film, which was grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE).
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