Surface states of topological insulators (TIs) have been playing the central role in the majority of outstanding investigations in low-dimensional electron systems for more than 10 years. TIs based on high-quality strained HgTe films demonstrate a variety of subtle physical effects. The strain leads to a bulk band gap but limits a maximum HgTe strained film thickness, and therefore, the majority of experiments were performed on films with a thickness of less than 100 nm. Since a spatial separation of topological states is crucial for the study of a single-surface response, it is essential to increase the HgTe thickness further. In this work, by combining transport measurements together with capacitance spectroscopy, we perform an analysis of a 200-nm partially relaxed HgTe film. The Drude fit of the classical magnetotransport reveals the ambipolar electron-hole transport with a high electron mobility. A detailed analysis of Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in both conductivity and capacitance allows us to distinguish three groups of electrons, identified as electrons on top and bottom surfaces and bulk electrons. The indirect bulk energy gap value is found to be close to zero. It is established that the significant gap decrease does not affect the surface states, which are found to be well resolved and spin nondegenerate. The presented techniques allow investigations of other three-dimensional TIs, regardless of the presence of bulk conductivity.
Quantum Hall effect and Landau levels in the 3D topological insulator HgTe
我们回顾了低场和高场磁输运在80 nm厚的应变碲化汞，一种材料，属于类强三维拓扑绝缘体。利用顶栅，费米能级可以从价带经由狄拉克表面态调谐到导带，并且允许在不同种类的载流子有助于磁输运的情况下研究朗道量子化。朗道扇形图绘制了整个磁场-栅极电压范围内的电导率$ σ_{xx}(V_g, B) $，根据参与载流子种类的状态，可分为六个区域。主要调查结果如下：（i）体空穴（自旋简并）和狄拉克表面电子（非简并）的相互作用，对于$ E_F $共存于价带中，导致奇数和偶数填充因子之间的周期性切换，从而导致奇数和偶数量子化霍尔电压值之间的周期性切换。(ii)我们在狄拉克表面和导带电子共存的情况下也发现了类似但不太明显的行为。(iii)在体隙中，顶面上的量子化狄拉克电子与底面上的非量子化狄拉克电子在较低的B处共存，从而产生量子霍尔平台值，其取决于-对于给定的填充因子-磁场强度。在较强的$ B $场中，朗道能级分离增加，不同载流子物种之间的电荷转移在能量上变得有利，并导致全局（即，涉及顶表面和底表面）量子霍尔态的形成。使用最简单的理论方法的模拟是符合基本的实验结果，正确地描述了我们的多组分电荷载流子系统的各个领域从经典到量子输运的过渡的中心特征。
Interplay between strain and size quantization in a class of topological insulators based on inverted-band semiconductors
Air Force Research Laboratory（空军研究实验室）；KBR（KBR公司）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, Ohio University（俄亥俄大学物理与天文系）；Centro de Física de Materiales (CFM-MPC), Centro Mixto CSIC-UPV/EHU（材料物理中心（CFM-MPC），CSIC-UPV/EHU联合中心）；Departamento de Polímeros y Materiales Avanzados: Física, Química y Tecnología, Facultad de Química, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU（巴斯克大学化学学院先进聚合物与材料系：物理、化学与技术）；Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC)（圣塞巴斯蒂安国际物理中心）；IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science（伊克尔巴斯基，巴斯克科学基金会）
Proximity induced ferromagnetism, superconductivity, and finite-size effects on the surface and edge states of topological insulator nanostructures
Bi $_{2}$ Te $_{3}$和Bi $_{2}$ Se $_{3}$是公知的3D-拓扑绝缘体。由这些材料制成的膜表现出具有狄拉克色散的类金属表面态，并具有高迁移率。高迁移率类金属表面态可以用作基于TI的场效应晶体管的沟道材料。虽然这种晶体管提供了优越的终端特性，但它们存在固有的零带隙问题。表面态的带隙的缺乏阻止了容易的关断机制。在这项工作中，可以采用的技术，很容易打开的TI表面状态的带隙。描述了两种方法：1）用磁化轴可控的铁磁体覆盖表面态。铁磁体的磁化强度作为交换相互作用项纳入哈密顿量。2)一个\textit{s}波超导体，由于邻近效应，当耦合到3D-TI打开表面上的带隙。这种TI超导体异质结建模使用Bogoliubov-de Gennes哈密顿量。还提出了一个比较，证明有限尺寸效应的表面状态的3D-TI和边缘状态的碲化镉/碲化汞/碲化镉为基础的2D-TI。与需要至少100.0 $ \mathrm{nm} $的厚度的2D-TI结构相比，3D-TI纳米结构可以减小到低至10.0 $ \mathrm{nm} $的尺寸。所有的计算使用连续四带k.p哈密顿量。
