Surface versus bulk state in topological insulator Bi2Se3 under environmental disorder

Topological insulators (TIs) are predicted to be composed of an insulating bulk state along with conducting channels on the boundary of the material. In Bi2Se3, however, the Fermi level naturally resides in the conduction band due to intrinsic doping by selenium vacancies, leading to metallic bulk s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2011-07, Vol.99 (1)
Main Authors: Brahlek, Matthew, Kim, Yong Seung, Bansal, Namrata, Edrey, Eliav, Oh, Seongshik
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Topological insulators (TIs) are predicted to be composed of an insulating bulk state along with conducting channels on the boundary of the material. In Bi2Se3, however, the Fermi level naturally resides in the conduction band due to intrinsic doping by selenium vacancies, leading to metallic bulk states. In such non-ideal TIs, it is not well understood how the surface and bulk states behave under environmental disorder. In this letter, based on transport measurements of Bi2Se3 thin films, we show that the bulk states are sensitive to environmental disorder but the surface states remain robust.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.3607484