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Exploration of the role of disorder and the behaviour of the surface state in the three-dimensional topological insulator—Bi2Se3

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Abstract

Here we present an overview of some of our recent experimental investigation on the high conducting topologically protected surface state properties of a 3D topological insulator (TI), Bi2Se3, in both bulk and single-crystals form. Selenium (Se) vacancies in Bi2Se3 are natural bulk charge dopants, hence these vacancies act as non-magnetic defects in these materials. We use Bi2Se3 material as a prototype of a 3D TI) material with the disorder, for exploring the effects of non-magnetic disorder on the topological conducting surface states. Using a sensitive non-contact mutual inductance-based measurement technique, we identify distinct signatures of surface and bulk contributions to electrical conductivity in a TI Bi2Se3. We show a temperature-dependent transformation from surface to bulk dominated electrical conductivity and unravel the unusual resurfacing of a surface-dominated electrical conductivity at high temperatures. We show that the surface to bulk conductivity transformation is related to a unique activation energy scale Δ in the range of tens of meV, which is smaller than the bulk-insulating gap in Bi2Se3. This gap, we believe is related to a defect state created by the charge dopant Se vacancies in Bi2Se3. We also see interesting effects related to disorder-related coupling of the surface states. The Se vacancies which dope the bulk of the Bi2Se3 crystal lead to an unusual inductive-type coupling of the high conducting 2D-like surface states. The coupling leads to a critical thickness feature in bulk TI crystal, which is distinct from the direct coupling limit in TI’s. We find that if the thickness of the Bi2Se3 crystal exceeds this critical thickness, then the surface states are no longer inductively coupled. To probe the temperature-related surface to bulk transformation in conductivity of Bi2Se3, we use a high sensitivity magneto-optical imaging technique to directly image the distribution of current in single crystal and a thin film of Bi2Se3. At low temperatures, we observed a strong sheet current from the topological surface state. Above 80 K, we report that the emergence of a temperature-dependent inhomogeneous, grainy current distribution state in Bi2Se3 single crystals. The grainy state has mixed regions with high and low current densities. The observation of the emergence of a temperature-dependent inhomogeneous phase in the TI suggests the possibility of a disorder-driven spontaneous phase separation scenario.

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Acknowledgements

SSB acknowledges funding support from the Department of Science and Technology (DST), India (AMT-TSDP and Imprint-II programs), IIT Kanpur and the help of Ankit Kumar from IIT Kanpur, India (present address: Technion—Israel Institute of Technology, Israel). SSB also thanks T R Devidas from IGCAR Kalpakam, India (present address: Hebrew University Jerusalem, Israel). SG thanks CSIR, India, for funding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, 208016, India

    AMIT JASH, SAYANTAN GHOSH & S S BANERJEE

  2. UGC-DAE Consortium for Scientific Research, Kalpakkam, 603104, India

    A BHARATHI

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  1. AMIT JASH
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  2. SAYANTAN GHOSH
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Correspondence to S S BANERJEE.

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This article is part of the special issue on ‘Quantum materials and devices’.

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JASH, A., GHOSH, S., BHARATHI, A. et al. Exploration of the role of disorder and the behaviour of the surface state in the three-dimensional topological insulator—Bi2Se3. Bull Mater Sci 45, 17 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12034-021-02616-x

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