Topological phase transition and highly tunable topological transport in topological crystalline insulator Pb1−xSnxTe (111) thin films

We report the magneotransport studies on the topological crystalline insulator (TCI) Pb1−xSnxTe (111) single crystal thin films grown by molecular beam epitaxy. By decreasing Sn content, an enhanced sheet resistance and decreased hole density are observed in Pb1−xSnxTe (111) thin films. A weak antil...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nanotechnology 2019-07, Vol.30 (27)
Main Authors: Zhang, Anqi, Wei, Feng, Yan, Chenhui, Wang, Fei, Ma, Song, Zhang, Zhidong
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
topological crystalline insulator
topological phase transition
weak antilocalization
weak localization
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Summary:We report the magneotransport studies on the topological crystalline insulator (TCI) Pb1−xSnxTe (111) single crystal thin films grown by molecular beam epitaxy. By decreasing Sn content, an enhanced sheet resistance and decreased hole density are observed in Pb1−xSnxTe (111) thin films. A weak antilocalization likely related to the topological surface states is observed in transport of Pb1−xSnxTe (x > 0.4) thin films, whereas a weak localization is displayed in Pb1−xSnxTe (x < 0.4) thin films. This tunable weak antilocalization to weak localization transition is attributed to the open of Dirac gap because of the topological phase transition in TCI Pb1−xSnxTe. Our research has a potential application in the tunable electronic and spintronic devices and is very significant to the fundamental research based on TCI Pb1−xSnxTe thin film.
ISSN:0957-4484
1361-6528
DOI:10.1088/1361-6528/ab13cf