Magnetoconductance Data Research Articles

Competitive nature of weak anti-localization and weak localization effect in Cr-doped sputtered topological insulator Bi2Se3 thin film

In the present study, we have investigated the effect of magnetic Cr doping on the transport properties of a sputtered Bi2Se3 thin film on the SrTiO3 (110) substrate. The high-resolution x-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy measurements revealed the growth of rhombohedral Bi2Se3 thin films. Further electronic and compositional analysis was done by x-ray photoemission spectroscopy and Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy, and the x-value was estimated to be 0.18 in the Bi2−xCrxSe3 thin film. The variation in the resistivity with temperature (2–300 K) revealed the metallic nature in undoped Bi2Se3 up to 30 K and upturn resistivity below 30 K. The Cr-doped Bi2Se3 resistivity data show a traditional semiconducting nature up to 25 K and take an abrupt upturn resistivity below 25 K. The resistivity behavior of both samples was explained by adopting a model that consists of the total resistance, a combination of bulk and surface resistance in parallel. The bulk bandgap value determined by this method is obtained to be 256 meV in an undoped Bi2Se3 thin film. Magnetoconductance data of the undoped thin film revealed a weak anti-localization (WAL) effect, while the Cr-doped thin film showed a weak localization (WL) effect at low temperatures (<50 K). At low magnetic field and low temperature, a competing nature of WAL and WL effects was prominent in the Cr-doped film. A drastic increase in the electrical resistance suggests that Cr doping can significantly modify the electrical properties of Bi2Se3 thin films, which could have potential applications in futuristic devices.

Direct Evidence of Klein and Anti-Klein Tunneling of Graphitic Electrons in a Corbino Geometry.

Transport measurement of electron optics in monolayer graphene p-n junction devices has been traditionally studied with negative refraction and chiral transmission experiments in Hall bar magnetic focusing setups. We show direct signatures of Klein (monolayer) and anti-Klein (bilayer) tunneling with a circular "edgeless" Corbino geometry made out of gated graphene p-n junctions. Noticeable in particular is the appearance of angular sweet spots (Brewster angles) in the magnetoconductance data of bilayer graphene, which minimizes head-on transmission, contrary to conventional Fresnel optics or monolayer graphene which show instead a sharpened collimation of transmission paths. The local maxima on the bilayer magnetoconductance plots migrate to higher fields with increasing doping density. These experimental results are in good agreement with detailed numerical simulations and analytical predictions.

Charge transport in n-type As- and Sb-hyperdoped Ge

This paper presents a systematic study of the charge transport behavior of heavily doped n-type Ge layers with As and Sb. A nonequilibrium method ion implantation followed by milliseconds flash lamp annealing is applied to synthesize the n++ Ge layers (Ge:As and Ge:Sb). The resulting materials contain free electrons with a density above 3 × 1019 cm−3 and mobility more than 220 cm2/(V s). Quantum corrections to the conductance in a magnetic field are observed at low temperatures. Weak localization persists up to 30 K in Ge:Sb, while only up to 10 K in Ge:As. Using the Hikami–Larkin–Nagaoka model to fit the magnetoconductance data, we obtain the phase coherence length lϕ of the hyperdoped Ge samples in the range of 70–163 nm. This study may pave a way to explore possible applications for quantum technologies utilizing As- and Sb-hyperdoped Ge.

Origin of linear magnetoresistance in Bi2Te3 topological insulator: Role of surface state and defects

Connection between topological surface states (TSS) and large linear magnetoresistance (LMR) is established in tetradymite Bi2Te3 through tuning of native defects. Thorough analysis of temperature dependent synchrotron X-ray diffraction data quantifies 0-D, 1-D and 2-D defect concentrations. Plausible variation of antisite defects is explained via carrier concentration data. Resistivity data divulge contribution of mixed bulk and surface states in the synthesized samples. High Fermi velocity (∼106 ms−1) and low Fermi energy (∼14 meV) of carriers are obtained. Lower defect concentration sample emerges with high magnetoresistance (MR) and higher mobility. Weak antilocalization (WAL) effect, signature of TSS, is revealed from MR. Large (80%), non-saturating LMR along with ultrahigh mobility (∼1 m2V−1s−1) in Bi2Te3 supports the presence of TSS. Magnetoconductance data are fitted with Hikami-Larkin-Nagaoka equation, obtaining further insight on WAL effect. In addition, extracted parameters like disorder correlation length and coherence length explicate the role of defect density on LMR.

Multifractal magnetoconductance fluctuations in mesoscopic systems.

We perform a multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis of the magnetoconductance data of two standard types of mesoscopic systems: a disordered nanowire and a ballistic chaotic billiard, with two different lattice structures. We observe in all cases that multifractality is generally present and that it becomes stronger in the quantum regime of conduction, i.e., when the number of open scattering channels is small. We argue that this behavior originates from correlations induced by the magnetic field, which can be characterized through the distribution of conductance increments in the corresponding "stochastic time series," with the magnetic field playing the role of a fictitious time. More specifically, we show that the distributions of conductance increments are well fitted by q Gaussians and that the value of the parameter q is a useful quantitative measure of multifractality in magnetoconductance fluctuations.

Magnetization dependent tunneling conductance of ferromagnetic barriers

Recent experiments on van der Waals antiferromagnets have shown that measuring the temperature (T) and magnetic field (H) dependence of the conductance allows their magnetic phase diagram to be mapped. Similarly, experiments on ferromagnetic CrBr3 barriers enabled the Curie temperature to be determined at H = 0, but a precise interpretation of the magnetoconductance data at H ≠ 0 is conceptually more complex, because at finite H there is no well-defined phase boundary. Here we perform systematic transport measurements on CrBr3 barriers and show that the tunneling magnetoconductance depends on H and T exclusively through the magnetization M(H, T) over the entire temperature range investigated. The phenomenon is reproduced by the spin-dependent Fowler–Nordheim model for tunneling, and is a direct manifestation of the spin splitting of the CrBr3 conduction band. Our analysis unveils a new approach to probe quantitatively different properties of atomically thin ferromagnetic insulators related to their magnetization by performing simple conductance measurements.

Observation of surface dominated topological transport in strained semimetallic ErPdBi thin films

In this Letter, we present experimental observation of surface-dominated transport properties in [110]-oriented strained (∼1.6%) ErPdBi thin films. The resistivity data show typical semi-metallic behavior in the temperature range of 3 K ≤ T ≤ 350 K with a transition from semiconductor- to metal-like behavior below 3 K. The metallic behavior at low temperature disappears entirely in the presence of an external magnetic field >1 T. The weak-antilocalization (WAL) effect is observed in magneto-conductance data in the low magnetic field region and follows the Hikami–Larkin–Nagaoka (HLN) model. HLN fitting estimated single coherent channel, i.e., α ∼ −0.51 at 1.9 K, and the phase coherence length (Lϕ) shows the Lϕ ∼ T−0.52 power law dependence on temperature in the range of 1.9 K–10 K, indicating the observation of 2D WAL. Shubnikov–de Haas (SdH) oscillations are observed in magneto-resistance data below 10 K and are fitted to standard Lifhsitz Kosevich theory. Fitting reveals the effective mass of charge carriers ∼0.15 me and a finite Berry phase of 0.86π ± 0.16. The sheet carrier concentration and mobility of carriers estimated using SdH data are ns ∼ 1.35 × 1012 cm−2 and μs = 1210 cm2 V−1 s−1, respectively, and match well with the data measured using the Hall measurement at 1.9 K to be n ∼ 1.22 × 1012 cm−2, μ = 1035 cm2 V−1 s−1. These findings indicate the non-trivial nature and surface-dominated transport properties of strained (110) ErPdBi thin films at low temperatures.

Anomalous Hall Effect in a Magnetic Topological Insulator (BiMn)2Te3

In this paper, we describe a thorough study of the structural and magneto-transport properties of Mn-doped Bi2Te3 thin films grown by magnetron sputtering. The substitution of bismuth from manganese was performed by repeating ten times an alternating deposition of Bi2Te3 and Mn layers. The crystal structure is the tetradymite with the ( $00l$ ) preferential orientation. Magnetoconductance data shows weak anti-localization phenomena at low temperatures. The presence of ferromagnetism is also demonstrating a strong anomalous Hall effect (AHE) and the sign of AHE resistances changes from negative to positive as the Mn concentration increases.

Modelling and fitting the Polaron Pair Magnetoconductance model to obtain a realistic local hyperfine field in Tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline)aluminium based diodes

The Polaron Pair (PP) model has been successfully applied to magnetoconductance (MC) in organic semiconductor devices under ultra-small magnetic fields (USMFE). We report µT resolution MC measurements carried out with high sensitivity (better than 10−6) on the common organic semiconductor tris-(8-hydroxyquinoline)aluminium in the range ±500 µT displaying clear minima at ~±240 µT. Unlike traditional approaches, where device MC is simply evaluated using the PP model using nominal parameters for microscopic quantities such as the local hyperfine magnetic field, we have carried out actual fitting of the PP MC model to the experimentally obtained data. The fitting procedure yields physically realistic values for the polaron pair decay rate, local hyperfine magnetic field and triplet contribution to dissociation namely: k = 28.6 ± 9.7 MHz, {B}_{hf} = 0.34 ± 0.04 mT and {delta }_{TS} = 0.99 ± 0.01 respectively. The local hyperfine field obtained by fitting is in excellent agreement with independently calculated values for this system and is reproducible across different devices and independent of drive conditions. This demonstrates the applicability of the fitting approach to any organic USMFE MC data for obtaining microscopic parameter values.

Investigation of magnetic and magneto-transport properties of ferromagnetic-charge ordered core-shell nanostructures

In our present study, we address in detail the magnetic and magneto-transport properties of ferromagnetic-charge ordered core-shell nanostructures. In these core-shell nanostructures, well-known half metallic La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 nanoparticles (average particle size, ∼20 nm) are wrapped by the charge ordered antiferromagnetic Pr0.67Ca0.33MnO3 (PCMO) matrix. The intrinsic properties of PCMO markedly modify it into such a core-shell form. The robustness of the PCMO matrix becomes fragile and melts at an external magnetic field (H) of ∼20 kOe. The analysis of magneto-transport data indicates the systematic reduction of the electron-electron and electron-magnon interactions in the presence of an external magnetic field in these nanostructures. The pronounced training effect appears in this phase separated compound, which was analyzed by considering the second order tunneling through the grain boundaries of the nanostructures. Additionally, the analysis of low field magnetoconductance data supports the second order tunneling and shows the close value of the universal limit (∼1.33).

Tunneling magnetoresistance in nanogranular La1-xSrxMnO3 (x∼0.5)

Electric transport and magnetic studies were performed on the La1-xSrxMnO3 (x=0.45-0.55) perovskite manganites. The main focus was given to the nanogranular ceramics of average x=0.47 composition, compacted by spark plasma sintering of molten salt synthesized nanoparticles. This sample can be viewed as a two-phase composite where FM manganite granules are embedded in AFM manganite matrix. The magnetoconductance data observed on this sample reveal a coexistence of distinct low- and high-field contributions, related to the field-induced alignment of ferromagnetic (FM) granules and the spin canting in antiferromagnetic (AFM) matrix, respectively. Their analysis confirms the theoretically predicted scaling of the low-field effect with squared reduced magnetization and provides also a quantitative comparison between the linear coefficient of high-field magnetoconductance and paraprocess seen in the magnetization measurement.

Quantum electrical transport properties of topological insulator Bi2Te3 nanowires

We investigate the quantum transport properties of surface electrons on a topological insulator Bi2Te3 nanowire in a magnetotransport study. Although the nanowires are synthesized by using a relatively coarse method of electrochemical deposition, clear Aharonov–Bohm oscillations of phases 0 and π are observed, owing to the highly coherent surface electron channel. The oscillation amplitude exhibits exponential temperature dependence, suggesting that the phase coherence length Lφ is inversely proportional to the temperature, as in quasi-ballistic systems. In addition, a weak antilocalization analysis on the surface channel by using a one-dimensional localization theory, enabled by successful extraction of the surface contribution from the magnetoconductance data, is provided in support of the temperature dependence of Lφ.

Phase-coherent transport and spin relaxation in InAs nanowires grown by molecule beam epitaxy

We report low-temperature magnetotransport studies of individual InAs nanowires grown by molecule beam epitaxy. At low magnetic fields, the magnetoconductance characteristics exhibit a crossover between weak antilocalization and weak localization by changing either the gate voltage or the temperature. The observed crossover behavior can be well described in terms of relative scales of the transport characteristic lengths extracted based on the quasi-one-dimensional theory of weak localization in the presence of spin-orbit interaction. The spin relaxation length extracted from the magnetoconductance data is found to be in the range of 80–100 nm, indicating the presence of strong spin-orbit coupling in the InAs nanowires. Moreover, the amplitude of universal conductance fluctuations in the nanowires is found to be suppressed at low temperatures due to the presence of strong spin-orbit scattering.

Localization and field-periodic conductance fluctuations in trilayer graphene

We have systematically studied quantum transport in a short trilayer-graphene field-effect transistor. Close to the charge neutrality point, our magnetoconductance data are well described by the theory of weak localization in monolayer graphene. However, as the carrier density is increased we find a complex evolution of the low field magnetoconductance that originates from a combination of the monolayer-like and bilayer-like band structures. The increased phase coherence length at high hole densities takes our shortest devices into the mesoscopic regime with the appearance of significant conductance fluctuations on top of the localization effects. Although these are aperiodic in gate voltage, they exhibit a quasi-periodic behaviour as a function of magnetic field. We show that this is consistent with the interference of discrete trajectories in open quantum dots and discuss the possible origin of these in our devices.

Low temperature transport in p-doped InAs nanowires

We present low temperature electrical measurements of p-type Indium Arsenide nanowires grown via molecular beam epitaxy using Beryllium as a dopant. Growth of p-type wires without stacking faults is demonstrated. Devices in field-effect geometries exhibit ambipolar behavior, and the temperature dependence of electron and hole field effect mobilities are extracted. At low temperatures, we observe reproducible conductance fluctuations as a result of quantum interference, and magnetoconductance data show weak antilocalization.

Fabrication and characterization of nanopatterned LaAlO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures

We report the fabrication of nanopatterned conduction channels and electrical transport of a two-dimensional electron gas formed at a LaAlO3/SrTiO3 heterointerface. The nanoscale channels are formed by electron beam lithography and Ar-ion etching. The negative magnetoconductance data observed at low temperature are attributed to the weak antilocalization effect due to the strong spin-orbit interaction inherent in the electron gas at the heterointerface whereas the conductance fluctuations are caused by quantum interference between the electron wavefunctions. The gatedependent characteristic parameters, obtained using the Maekawa-Fukuyama model, reveal that the spin-orbit interaction in the nanopatterned metal-oxide heterostructure is gate-tunable, which will be useful for building spintronic devices.

Strain-dependent transport properties of the ultra-thin correlated metal, LaNiO3

We explore the electrical transport and magneto-conductance (MC) in quasi-two-dimensional strongly correlated ultra-thin films of LaNiO3 (LNO) to investigate the effect of hetero-epitaxial strain on electron–electron and electron–lattice interactions from the low to intermediate temperature range (2–170 K). The fully epitaxial 10 unit cell thick films spanning tensile strain up to ∼4% are used to investigate the effects of enhanced carrier localization driven by a combination of weak localization (WL) and electron–electron interactions at low temperatures. The MC data show the importance of the increased contribution of WL to low-temperature quantum corrections. The obtained results demonstrate that with increasing tensile strain and reduced temperature, the quantum-confined LNO system gradually evolves from the Mott into the Mott–Anderson regime.

Impurity Effect on Weak Antilocalization in the Topological InsulatorBi2Te3

We study the weak antilocalization (WAL) effect in topological insulator Bi(2)Te(3) thin films at low temperatures. The two-dimensional WAL effect associated with surface carriers is revealed in the tilted magnetic field dependence of magnetoconductance. Our data demonstrate that the observed WAL is robust against deposition of nonmagnetic Au impurities on the surface of the thin films, but it is quenched by the deposition of magnetic Fe impurities which destroy the π Berry phase of the topological surface states. The magnetoconductance data of a 5 nm Bi(2)Te(3) film suggests that a crossover from symplectic to unitary classes is observed with the deposition of Fe impurities.

Probing the inter-tube transport in aligned and random multiwall carbon nanotubes

The temperature and magnetic field dependence of conductivity has been used to probe the inter-tube transport in multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWNTs). The scanning electron microscopy images show highly aligned and random distribution of MWNTs. The conductivity in aligned carbon nanotube (ACNT) and random carbon nanotube (RCNT) samples at low temperature follows T1/2 (at T < 8 K) and T3/4 (at T > 8 K) dependence in accordance with the weak localization and electron-electron (e-e) interaction model. The values of diffusion coefficient in ACNT and RCNT are 0.25 × 10−2 and 0.71 × 10−2 cm2 s−1, respectively, indicating that larger number of inter-tube junctions in later enhances the bulk transport. The positive magnetoconductance (MC) data in both samples show that the weak localization contribution is dominant. However, the saturation of MC at higher fields and lower temperatures indicate that e-e interaction is quite significant in RCNT. The T−3/4 and T−1/2 dependence of inelastic scattering length (lin) in ACNT and RCNT samples show that the inelastic e-e scattering is more important in aligned tubes.

Propagative Landau States and Fermi Level Pinning in Carbon Nanotubes

We present strong evidence of Landau states formation in multiwalled carbon nanotubes with metallic or semiconducting outer shells, under magnetic fields as high as 60 T. Magnetoconductance data are found to converge to a gate-independent value for semiconducting shells, whereas for metallic shells, the Landau states introduce a strong reintroduction of backscattering and Fermi level pinning close to the charge neutrality point. Electronic band structure and transport calculations provide a consistent interpretation of the experimental data.