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arXiv 2106.06217cond-mat.mes-hall
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解除超薄拓扑绝缘体薄膜中的自旋-动量锁定

Lifting the spin-momentum locking in ultra-thin topological insulator films

Arthur Leis, Michael Schleenvoigt, Vasily Cherepanov, Felix Lüpke, Peter Schüffelgen, Gregor Mussler, Detlev Grützmacher, Bert Voigtländer, F. Stefan Tautz

AI总结:

本研究以(Bi$_{0.16}$Sb$_{0.84}$)$_2$Te$_3$薄膜为对象,用四针尖扫描隧道显微镜发现临界厚度下电导率指数下降,证实表面态杂化引发的自旋守恒背散射解除自旋-动量锁定并打开狄拉克点能隙,为探测量子自旋霍尔态提供关键实验支撑。

摘要:

三维(3D)拓扑绝缘体(TI)已知承载二维类狄拉克拓扑表面态,其中自旋-动量锁定会抑制背散射。当厚度减至几纳米时,上下表面的拓扑表面态之间的杂化会引发拓扑量子相变,进而可能出现量子自旋霍尔相。在此,我们以(Bi$_{0.16}$Sb$_{0.84}$)$_2$Te$_3$薄膜为研究对象,使用四针尖扫描隧道显微镜研究了该量子相变过程中依赖于厚度的输运性质。我们的研究结果表明,在临界厚度以下,电导率呈指数下降。该下降的陡峭程度表明,上下表面态之间存在自旋守恒的背散射,这有效解除了自旋-动量锁定,并导致狄拉克点处出现能隙。我们的实验为在输运测量中探测量子自旋霍尔态提供了关键进展。

英文摘要:

Three-dimensional (3D) topological insulators (TIs) are known to carry 2D Dirac-like topological surface states in which spin-momentum locking prohibits backscattering. When thinned down to a few nanometers, the hybridization between the topological surface states at the top and bottom surfaces results in a topological quantum phase transition, which can lead to the emergence of a quantum spin Hall phase. Here, we study the thickness-dependent transport properties across the quantum phase transition on the example of (Bi$_{0.16}$Sb$_{0.84}$)$_2$Te$_3$ films, with a four-tip scanning tunnelling microscope. Our findings reveal an exponential drop of the conductivity below the critical thickness. The steepness of this drop indicates the presence of spin-conserving backscattering between the top and bottom surface states, effectively lifting the spin-momentum locking and resulting in the opening of a gap at the Dirac point. Our experiments provide crucial steps towards the detection of quantum spin Hall states in transport measurements.

机构、总结、中文摘要均由AI分析而来,可能存在错误,请以论文正文为准。

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