A magnetoconductivity formula is presented for the surface states of a magnetically doped topological insulator. It reveals a competing effect of weak localization and weak antilocalization in quantum transport when an energy gap is opened at the Dirac point by magnetic doping. It is found that, while random magnetic scattering always drives the system from the symplectic to the unitary class, the gap could induce a crossover from weak antilocalization to weak localization, tunable by the Fermi energy or the gap. This crossover presents a unique feature characterizing the surface states of a topological insulator with the gap opened at the Dirac point in the quantum diffusion regime.
Using the Feynman diagram techniques, we derive the finite-temperature conductivity and magnetoconductivity formulas from the quantum interference and electron-electron interaction, for a three-dimensional disordered Weyl semimetal. For a single valley of Weyl fermions, we find that the magnetoconductivity is negative and proportional to the square root of magnetic field at low temperatures, as a result of the weak antilocalization. By including the contributions from the weak antilocalization, Berry curvature correction, and Lorentz force, we compare the calculated magnetoconductivity with a …
We demonstrate manipulation of quantum interference by controlling the competitions between weak localization (WL) and weak antilocalization (WAL) via variation of the gate voltages of double- gate amorphous InGaZnO thin-film transistors. Our study unveils the full profile of an intriguing universal dependence of the respective WL and WAL contributions on the channel conductivity. This universality is discovered to be robust against interface disorder.
We have investigated the gate-voltage dependence and the temperature dependence of the magnetoconductivity of amorphous indium-gallium-zinc-oxide thin-film transistors. A weak-localization feature is observed at small magnetic fields on top of an overall negative magnetoconductivity at higher fields. An intriguing controllable competition between weak localization and weak antilocalization is observed by tuning the gate voltage or varying the temperature. Our findings reflect controllable quantum interference competition in the electron systems in amorphous indium-gallium-zinc-oxide thin-film …
We calculate the weak localization correction in the double crossover to broken time-reversal and spin-rotational symmetry for a disordered microbridge or a short disordered wire using a scattering-matrix approach. Whereas the correction has universal limiting values in the three basic symmetry classes, the functional form of the magnetoconductance is affected by eventual non-homogeneities in the microbridge.
We propose a scanning tunneling microscopy Aharonov-Bohm (AB) interferometer on the surface of a topological insulator (TI) to probe the crossover from analogous weak antilocalization (WAL) to weak localization (WL) phenomenon via the AB oscillations in spin-resolved local density of states (LDOS). Based on our analytical and numerical results, we show that with increasing the energy gap of TI surface states, the $Φ_{0}/2$=$hc/2e$ periodic AB oscillations in spin-resolved LDOS gradually transit into the $Φ_{0}$ periodic oscillations.
We investigate the gate-voltage dependence of the magnetoconductivity of several amorphous InGaZnO$_4$ (a-IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs). The magnetoconductivity exhibits gate-voltage- controlled competitions between weak localization (WL) and weak antilocalization (WAL), and the respective weights of WL and WAL contributions demonstrate an intriguing universal dependence on the channel conductivity regardless of the difference in the electrical characteristics of the a-IGZO TFTs. Our findings help build a theoretical interpretation of the competing WL and WAL observed in the electron syst…
We evaluate quantum corrections to conductivity in an electrically gated thin film of a three-dimensional (3D) topological insulator (TI). We derive approximate analytical expressions for the low-field magnetoresistance as a function of bulk doping and bulk-surface tunneling rate. Our results reveal parameter regimes for both weak localization and weak antilocalization, and include diffusive Weyl semimetals as a special case.
We present magnetoresistance measurements performed on ultrathin films of amorphous Ni and Fe. In these films the Curie temperature drops to zero at small thickness, making it possible to study the effect of ferromagnetism on localization. We find that non-ferromagnetic films are characterized by positive magnetoresistance. This is interpreted as resulting from weak antilocalization due to strong Bychkov-Rashba spin orbit scattering. As the films become ferromagnetic the magnetoresistance changes sign and becomes negative. We analyze our data to identify the individual contributions of weak lo…
We report transport studies on the 5 nm thick Bi2Se3 topological insulator films which are grown via molecular beam epitaxy technique. The angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy data show that the Fermi level of the system lies in the bulk conduction band above the Dirac point, suggesting important contribution of bulk states to the transport results. In particular, the crossover from weak antilocalization to weak localization in the bulk states is observed in the parallel magnetic field measurements up to 50 Tesla. The measured magneto-resistance exhibits interesting anisotropy with respec…
Topological materials have attracted considerable experimental and theoretical attention. They exhibit strong spin-orbit coupling both in the band structure (intrinsic) and in the impurity potentials (extrinsic), although the latter is often neglected. Here we discuss weak localization and antilocalization of massless Dirac fermions in topological insulators and massive Dirac fermions in Weyl semimetal thin films taking into account both intrinsic and extrinsic spin-orbit interactions. The physics is governed by the complex interplay of the chiral spin texture, quasiparticle mass, and scalar a…
We analyze the effect of weak localization (WL) and weak antilocalization (WAL) in the electronic transport through HgTe/CdTe quantum wells. We show that for increasing Fermi energy the magnetoconductance of a diffusive system with inverted band ordering features a transition from WL to WAL and back, if spin-orbit interactions from bulk and structure inversion asymmetry can be neglected. This, and an additional splitting in the magnetoconductance profile, is a signature of the Berry phase arising for inverted band ordering and not present in heterostructures with conventional ordering. In pres…
Weak antilocalization is studied in an InGaAs quantum well. Anomalous magnetoresistance is measured and described theoretically in fields perpendicular, tilted and parallel to the quantum well plane. Spin and phase relaxation times are found as functions of temperature and parallel field. It is demonstrated that spin dephasing is due to the Dresselhaus spin-orbit interaction. The values of electron spin splittings and spin relaxation times are found in the wide range of 2D density. Application of in-plane field is shown to destroy weak antilocalization due to competition of Zeeman and microrou…
Theory of weak antilocalization is developed for high-mobility two-dimensional systems. Spin-orbit interaction of Rashba and Dresselhaus types is taken into account. Anomalous magnetoresistance is calculated in the whole range of classically weak magnetic fields and for arbitrary strength of spin-orbit splitting. Obtained expressions are valid for both ballistic and diffusive regimes of weak localization. Proposed theory includes both backscattering and nonbackscattering contributions to the conductivity. It is shown that magnetic field dependence of conductivity in high-mobility structures is…
New materials such as nodal-line semimetals offer a unique setting for novel transport phenomena. Here, we calculate the quantum correction to conductivity in a disordered nodal-line semimetal. The torus-shaped Fermi surface and encircled $π$ Berry flux carried by the nodal loop result in a fascinating interplay between the effective dimensionality of electron diffusion and band topology, which depends on the scattering range of the impurity potential relative to the size of the nodal loop. For a short-range impurity potential, backscattering is dominated by the interference paths that do not …
We investigate antilocalization due to spin-orbit coupling in ballistic GaAs quantum dots. Antilocalization that is prominent in large dots is suppressed in small dots, as anticipated theoretically. Parallel magnetic fields suppress both antilocalization and also, at larger fields, weak localization, consistent with random matrix theory results once orbital coupling of the parallel field is included. In situ control of spin-orbit coupling in dots is demonstrated as a gate-controlled crossover from weak localization to antilocalization.
We report electron transport studies in an encapsulated few-layer WTe$_2$ at low temperatures and high magnetic fields. The magnetoconductance reveals a temperature-induced crossover between weak antilocalization (WAL) and weak localization (WL) in quantum diffusive regime. We show that the crossover clearly manifests coexistence and competition among several characteristic lengths, including the dephasing length, the spin-flip length, and the mean free path. In addition, low temperature conductance increases logarithmically with the increase of temperature indicating an interplay of electron-…
We develop a semiclassical theory for spin-dependent quantum transport to describe weak (anti)localization in quantum dots with spin-orbit coupling. This allows us to distinguish different types of spin relaxation in systems with chaotic, regular, and diffusive orbital classical dynamics. We find, in particular, that for typical Rashba spin-orbit coupling strengths, integrable ballistic systems can exhibit weak localization, while corresponding chaotic systems show weak antilocalization. We further calculate the magnetoconductance and analyze how the weak antilocalization is suppressed with de…
Artificial confinement of electrons by tailoring the layer thickness has turned out to be a powerful tool to harness control over competing phases in nano-layers of complex oxides. We investigate the effect of dimensionality on transport properties of $d$-electron based heavy-fermion metal CaCu$_{3}$Ru$_{4}$O$_{12}$. Transport behavior evolves from metallic to localized regime upon reducing thickness and a metal insulator transition is observed below 3 nm film thickness for which sheet resistance crosses $h/e^{2} \sim 25~$k$Ω$, the quantum resistance in 2D. Magnetotransport study reveals a str…
We report a new attractive critical point occurring in the Anderson localization scaling flow of symplectic models on fractals. The scaling theory of Anderson localization predicts that in disordered symplectic two-dimensional systems weak antilocalization effects lead to a metal-insulator transition. This transition is characterized by a repulsive critical point above which the system becomes metallic. Fractals possess a non-integer scaling of conductance in the classical limit which can be continuously tuned by changing the fractal structure. We demonstrate that in disordered symplectic Hami…
Transport in ultrathin graphite grown on silicon carbide is dominated by the electron-doped epitaxial layer at the interface. Weak anti-localization in 2D samples manifests itself as a broad cusp-like depression in the longitudinal resistance for magnetic fields 10 mT$< B <$ 5 T. An extremely sharp weak-localization resistance peak at B=0 is also observed. These features quantitatively agree with graphene weak-(anti)localization theory implying the chiral electronic character of the samples. Scattering contributions from the trapped charges in the substrate and from trigonal warping due to the…
Topological insulators (TI) are a new class of quantum materials with insulating bulk enclosed by topologically protected metallic boundaries. The surface states of three-dimensional TIs have spin helical Dirac structure, and are robust against time reversal invariant perturbations. This extraordinary property is notably exemplified by the absence of backscattering by nonmagnetic impurities and the weak antilocalization (WAL) of Dirac fermions. Breaking the time reversal symmetry (TRS) by magnetic element doping is predicted to create a variety of exotic topological magnetoelectric effects. He…
Weak antilocalization (WAL) effect due to the interference corrections to the conductivity has been studied experimentally in a strained InGaAs/InP quantum well structure. From measurements in tilted magnetic filed, it was shown that both weak localization and WAL features depend only on the normal component of the magnetic field for tilt angles less than 84 degrees. Weak antilocalization effect showed non-monotonous dependence on the gate voltage which could not be explained by either Rashba or Dresselhouse mechanisms of the spin-orbit coupling. To describe magnetic field dependence of the co…
The magnetoresistance associated with quantum interference corrections in a high mobility, gated InGaAs/InP quantum well structure is studied as a function of temperature, gate voltage, and angle of the tilted magnetic field. Particular attention is paid to the experimental extraction of phase-breaking and spin-orbit scattering times when weak anti- localization effects are prominent. Compared with metals and low mobility semiconductors the characteristic magnetic field $B_{tr} = \hbar/4eD τ$ in high mobility samples is very small and the experimental dependencies of the interference effects e…
We present a comprehensive study of the low-field magnetoresistance in carbon doped p-type GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures aiming at the investigation of spin-orbit interaction effects. The following signatures of exceptionally strong spin-orbit interactions are simultaneously observed: a beating in the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations, a classical positive magnetoresistance due to the presence of the two spin-split subbands, and a weak anti-localization dip in the magnetoresistance. The spin-orbit induced splitting of the heavy hole subband at the Fermi level is determined to be around 30% of the …
The effects of structural (Rashba) and bulk (Dresselhaus) spin-orbit interaction terms on the low-field magnetoresistance are investigated in high-quality two dimensional systems. The weak localization theory accounting for both of these terms valid in the whole range of magnetic fields is proposed. The suppresion of antilocalization correction as Rashba and Dresselhaus terms strengths approach each other is demonstrated. The effect of cubic in the wavevector spin-splitting term is analyzed.
We report on the magnetoconductivity of quasi two-dimensional electron systems in inversion layers on p-type InAs single crystals. In low magnetic fields pronounced features of weak localization and antilocalization are observed. They are almost perfectly described by the theory of Iordanskii, Lyanda-Geller and Pikus. This allows us to determine the spin splitting and the Rashba parameter of the ground electric subband as a function of the electron density.
Anderson localization, the absence of diffusive transport in disordered systems, has been manifested as hopping transport in numerous electronic systems, whereas in recently discovered topological insulators it has not been directly observed. Here we report experimental demonstration of transition from diffusive transport in the weak antilocalization regime to variable range hopping transport in the Anderson localization regime with ultrathin (Bi$_{1-x}$Sb$_x$)$_2$Te$_3$ films. As disorder becomes stronger, negative magnetoconductivity due to the weak antilocalization is gradually suppressed, …
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 negat…
We have studied the effect of spin-orbital coupling (SOC) on electronic transport properties of the thermoelectric material $β$-K$_{2}$Bi$_{8}$Se$_{13}$ via magnetoresistance (MR) measurements. We found that the strong SOC in this material results in weak antilocalization (WAL) effect, which can be well described by the three-dimensional weak localization model. The phase coherence length extracted from theoretical fitting exhibits a power-law temperature dependence with an exponent around 2.1, indicating that the electron phase dephasing is governed by electron - transverse phonon interaction…
We perform a symmetry analysis of a 2D electron system in HgTe/HgCdTe quantum wells in the situation when the chemical potential is outside of the gap, so that the bulk of the quantum well is conducting. In order to investigate quantum transport properties of the system, we explore symmetries of the low-energy Hamiltonian which is expressed in terms of two flavors of Dirac fermions, and physically important symmetry-breaking mechanisms. This allows us to predict emerging patterns of symmetry breaking that control the weak localization and antilocalization showing up in transverse-field magneto…
Quantum corrections to electrical resistance can serve as sensitive probes of the magnetic landscape of a material. For example, interference between time-reversed electron paths gives rise to weak localization effects, which can provide information about the coupling between spins and orbital motion, while the Kondo effect is sensitive to the presence of spin impurities. Here we use low-temperature magnetotransport measurements to reveal a transition from weak antilocalization (WAL) to Kondo scattering in the quasi-two-dimensional electron gas formed at the interface between SrTiO$_3$ and the…
Tellurium (Te) has attracted great research interest due to its unique crystal structure since 1970s. However, the conduction band of Te is rarely studied experimentally because of the intrinsic p-type nature of Te crystal. By atomic layer deposited dielectric doping technique, we are able to access the conduction band transport properties of Te in a controlled fashion. In this paper, we report on a systematic study of weak-antilocalization (WAL) effect in n-type two-dimensional (2D) Te films. We find that the WAL agrees well with Iordanskii, Lyanda-Geller, and Pikus (ILP) theory. The gate and…
We put forward a theory of the weak localization in two dimensional graphene layers which explains experimentally observable transition between positive and negative magnetoresistance. Calculations are performed for the whole range of classically weak magnetic field with account on intervalley transitions. Contribution to the quantum correction which stems from closed trajectories with few scatterers is carefully taken into account. We show that intervalley transitions lead not only to the transition from weak antilocalization to the weak localization, but also to the non-monotonous dependence…
Theory of weak localization in two-dimensional high-mobility semiconductor systems is developed with allowance for the spin-orbit interaction. The obtained expressions for anomalous magnetoresistance are valid in the whole range of classically weak magnetic fields and for arbitrary strengths of bulk and structural inversion asymmetry contributions to the spin splitting. The theory serves for both diffusive and ballistic regimes of electron propagation taking into account coherent backscattering and nonbackscattering processes. The transition between weak localization and antilocalization regim…
Epitaxial La$_{2/3}$Sr$_{1/3}$MnO$_3$ (LSMO) films have been grown on SrTiO$_3$ (001) substrates via pulsed laser deposition. In a 22-nm thick LSMO film with a low residual resistivity of $ρ_0$ = 59 $μΩ$ cm, we found a zero-field dip in the magnetoresistance (MR) below 10 K, manifesting the weak antilocalization (WAL) effect due to strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC). We have analyzed the MR data by including the D'yakonov-Perel' spin-relaxation mechanism in the WAL theory. We explain that the delocalized spin-down electron subband states play a crucial role for facilitating marked SOC in clean L…
Weak antilocalization (WAL) is expected whenever strong spin-orbit coupling or scattering comes into play. Spin-orbit coupling in the bulk states of a topological insulator is very strong, enough to result in the topological phase transition. However, the recently observed WAL in topological insulators seems to have an ambiguous origin from the bulk states. Starting from the effective model for three-dimensional topological insulators, we find that the lowest two-dimensional (2D) bulk subbands of a topological insulator thin film can be described by the modified massive Dirac model. We derive …
The Eilenberger equation is a standard tool in the description of superconductors with an arbitrary degree of disorder. It can be generalized to systems with linear-in-momentum spin-orbit coupling (SOC), by exploiting the analogy of SOC with a non-abelian background field. Such field mixes singlet and triplet components and yields the rich physics of magnetoelectric phenomena. In this work we show that the application of this equation extends further, beyond superconductivity. In the normal state, the linearized Eilenberger equation describes the coupled spin-charge dynamics. Moreover, its res…
In this study, we develop a systematic weak localization/antilocalization theory fully considering the anisotropy and Berry phase of the system, and apply it to various phases of few-layer black phosphorus (BP), which has a highly anisotropic electronic structure with an electronic gap size tunable even to a negative value. The derivation of a Cooperon ansatz for the Bethe-Salpeter equation in a general anisotropic system is presented, revealing the existence of various quantum interference effects in different phases of few-layer BP, including a crossover from weak localization to antilocaliz…
Theory of interference-induced quantum corrections to conductivity is developed for two dimensional systems with chiral spin textures including skyrmions. The effect of exchange interaction between electrons and spin textures on weak localization of electronic waves is studied. The spin dephasing rates are calculated as functions of the spin texture size. The anomalous magnetoresistance is shown to be governed by the size and magnetization spatial distribution of the spin textures. The effect of average magnetization-induced spin splitting on weak localization is analyzed. The sign-alternating…
We consider phase-coherent transport through ballistic and diffusive two-dimensional hole systems based on the Kohn-Luttinger Hamiltonian. We show that intrinsic heavy-hole light-hole coupling gives rise to clear-cut signatures of an associated Berry phase in the weak localization which renders the magneto-conductance profile distinctly different from electron transport. Non-universal classical correlations determine the strength of these Berry phase effects and the effective symmetry class, leading even to antilocalization-type features for circular quantum dots and Aharonov-Bohm rings in the…
We separate localization and interaction effects in epitaxial graphene devices grown on the C-face of a 4H-SiC substrate by analyzing the low temperature conductivities. Weak localization and antilocalization are extracted at low magnetic fields, after elimination of a geometric magnetoresistance and subtraction of the magnetic field dependent Drude conductivity. The electron electron interaction correction is extracted at higher magnetic fields, where localization effects disappear. Both phenomena are weak but sizable and of the same order of magnitude. If compared to graphene on silicon diox…
Strong spin-orbit coupling in topological insulators results in the ubiquitously observed weak antilocalization feature in their magnetoresistance. Here we present magnetoresistance measurements in ultra thin films of the topological insulator Bi_2Se_3, and show that in the 2D quantum limit, in which the topological insulator bulk becomes quantized, an additional negative magnetoresistance feature appears. Detailed analysis associates this feature with weak localization of the quantized bulk channels, providing thus evidence for this quantization. Examination of the dephasing fields at differe…
Structural, magnetic and magnetotransport properties of (Bi$_{1-x}$Eu$_x$)$_2$Se$_3$ thin films have been studied experimentally as a function of Eu content. The films were synthesized by MBE. It is demonstrated that Eu distribution is not uniform, it enter quint-layers forming inside them plain (pancake-like) areas containing Eu atoms, which sizes and concentration increase with the growth of Eu content. Positive magnetoresistance related to the weak antilocalization was observed up to 15K. The antilocalization was not followed by weak localization as theory predicts for nontrivial topologica…
The Hikami-Larkin-Nagaoka (HLN) formula [Prog. Theor. Phys. 63, 707 (1980)] describes the quantum corrections to the magnetoconductivity of a quasi-2D electron gas (quasi-2DEG) with parabolic dispersion. It predicts a crossover from weak localization to antilocalization as a function of the strength of scattering off spin-orbit impurities. Here, we derive the conductivity correction for massless Dirac fermions in 3D topological insulators (TIs) in the presence of spin-orbit impurities. We show that this correction is always positive and therefore we predict weak antilocalization for every valu…
Spin Hall and Edelstein effects in a ballistic quantum dot with Rashba spin-orbit coupling
CNR-SPIN（意大利国家研究委员会自旋物理研究所）；Università di Salerno（萨莱诺大学）；Dipartimento di Fisica ”E.R. Caianiello”, Università di Salerno（萨莱诺大学埃·R·卡亚涅洛物理系）；INFN, Sezione di Napoli, Gruppo collegato di Salerno（意大利国家核物理研究所那不勒斯分部萨莱诺协作组）；Dipartimento di Fisica, Università della Calabria（卡拉布里亚大学物理系）；Dipartimento di Fisica Ettore Pancini, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II（那不勒斯费德里科二世大学埃托雷·潘奇尼物理系）；AGH University of Krakow, Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science（克拉科夫AGH科技大学物理与应用计算机科学系）
We examine models for the magneto-conductivity correction in 2DEGs with both Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling (SOC) for their applicability to experimental data fitting. In particular, we compare the Landau-quantized Cooperon approach, which is mostly only numerically treatable, and the quasi-classical approximation that was recently employed to obtain an explicit solution for arbitrary Rashba and Dresselhaus SOC [PRL 112, 156601 (2019)]. It is found that the quasi-classical approximation yields significantly different results even to lowest order in the magnetic field and appears un…
Topological superconductors have attracted tremendous excitement as they are predicted to host Majorana zero modes that can be utilized for topological quantum computing. Candidate topological superconductor Sn1-xInxTe thin films (0<x<0.3) grown by molecular beam epitaxy and strained in the (111) plane are shown to host three coexisting quantum effects: localization, antilocalization and superconducting fluctuations above the critical temperature Tc. An analysis of the normal state magnetoresistance reveals these effects. Weak localization is consistently observed in superconducting samples, i…
A brief review of experiments directed to study a gradual localization of charge carriers and metal-insulator transition in samples of disordered monolayer graphene is presented. Disorder was induced by irradiation with different doses of heavy and light ions. Degree of disorder was controlled by measurements of the Raman scattering spectra. The temperature dependences of conductivity and magnetoresistance (MR) showed that at low disorder, conductivity is governed by the weak localization and antilocalization regime. Further increase of disorder leads to strong localization of charge carriers,…
In addition to the weak antilocalization cusp observed in the magnetoresistance (MR) of topological insulators at low temperatures and low magnetic fields, we find that the high-field MR in Bi2Te2Se is linear in field. At fields up to B=14T the slope of this linear-like MR is nearly independent of temperature over the range T=7 to 150K. We find that the linear MR arises from the competition between a logarithmic phase coherence component and a quadratic component. The quantum phase coherence dominates up to high temperatures, where the coherence length remains longer than the mean free path of…
The electronic transport experiments on topological insulators exhibit a dilemma. A negative cusp in magnetoconductivity is widely believed as a quantum transport signature of the topological surface states, which are immune from localization and exhibit the weak antilocalization. However, the measured conductivity drops logarithmically when lowering temperature, showing a typical feature of the weak localization as in ordinary disordered metals. Here, we present a conductivity formula for massless and massive Dirac fermions as a function of magnetic field and temperature, by taking into accou…
We derive a closed-form expression for the weak localization (WL) corrections to the magnetoconductivity of a 2D electron system with arbitrary Rashba $α$ and Dresselhaus $β$ (linear) and $β_3$ (cubic) spin-orbit interaction couplings, in a perpendicular magnetic field geometry. In a system of reference with an in-plane $\hat{z}$ axis chosen as the high spin-symmetry direction at $α= β$, we formulate a new algorithm to calculate the three independent contributions that lead to WL. The antilocalization is counterbalanced by the term associated with the spin-relaxation along $\hat{z}$, dependent…
We have measured the quantum-interference magnetoresistances in two single indium tin oxide (ITO) nanowires between 0.25 and 40 K, by using the four-probe configuration method. The magnetoresistances are compared with the one-dimensional weak-(anti)localization theory to extract the electron dephasing length $L_ϕ$. We found, in a 60-nm diameter nanowire with a low resistivity of $ρ$(10 K) = 185 $μΩ$ cm, that $L_ϕ$ is long, increasing from 150 nm at 40 K to 520 nm at 0.25 K. Therefore, the nanowire reveals strict one-dimensional weak-localization effect up to several tens of degrees of Kelvin. …
We study Aharonov-Bohm (AB) oscillations in the local density of states (LDOS) for topological insulator (TI) and conventional metal Au(111) surfaces with spin-orbit interaction, which can be probed by spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy. We show that the spacial AB oscillatory period in the total LDOS is a flux quantum $Φ_{0}\mathtt{=}hc/e$ (weak localization) in both systems. Remarkably, an analogous weak antilocalization with $Φ_{0}/2$ periodic spacial AB oscillations in spin components of LDOS for TI surface is observed, while it is absent in Au(111).
A generalization of the single-parameter scaling theory of localization is proposed for the case when the random potential depends on temperature. The scaling equation describing the behavior of the resistance is derived. It is shown that the competition between the metallic-like temperature dependence of the Drude resistivity and localization leads to a maximum (minimum) at higher (lower) temperatures. An illustration of a metal-insulator transition in the model of charged traps, whose concentration depends on temperature, is presented.
Topological semimetals have been at the forefront of experimental and theoretical attention in condensed matter physics. Among these, recently discovered Weyl semimetals have a dispersion described by a three-dimensional Dirac cone, which is at the root of exotic physics such as the chiral anomaly in magnetotransport. In a time reversal symmetric (TRS) Weyl semimetal film, the confinement gap gives the quasiparticles a mass, while TRS is preserved by having an even number of valleys with opposite masses. The film can be tuned through a topological phase transition by a gate electric field. In …
