In-plane transport and enhanced thermoelectric performance in thin films of the topological insulators Bi_2Te_3 and Bi_2Se_3

Abstract

Several small-bandgap semiconductors are now known to have protected metallic surface states as a consequence of the topology of the bulk electron wavefunctions. The known "topological insulators" with this behavior include the important thermoelectric materials Bi_2Te_3 and Bi_2Se_3, whose surfaces are observed in photoemission experiments to have an unusual electronic structure with a single Dirac cone. We study in-plane (i.e., horizontal) transport in thin films made of these materials. The surface states from top and bottom surfaces hybridize, and conventional diffusive transport predicts that the tunable hybridization-induced band gap leads to increased thermoelectric performance at low temperatures. Beyond simple diffusive transport, the conductivity shows a crossover from the spin-orbit induced anti-localization at a single surface to ordinary localization.

5 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (6)

• Discovery (theoretical prediction and experimental observation) of a large-gap topological-insulator class with spin-polarized single-Dirac-cone on the surface
• A topological Dirac insulator in a quantum spin Hall phase : Experimental observation of first strong topological insulator
• Massive Dirac fermions and spin physics in an ultrathin film of topological insulator
• Oscillatory crossover from two dimensional to three dimensional topological insulators
• Anomalous Finite Size Effects on Surface States in the Topological Insulator Bi${}_2$Se${}_3$
• Thermoelectricity by Perfectly Conducting Channels in Quantum Spin Hall Systems

Cited by in corpus (72)

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• Weak localization of bulk channels in topological insulator thin film
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• First Principles Investigations of the Atomic, Electronic, and Thermoelectric Properties of Equilibrium and Strained Bi2Se3 & Bi2Te3, with van der Waals Interactions
• Robustness of topologically protected surface states in layering of Bi2Te3 thin films
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• Finite-temperature conductivity and magnetoconductivity of topological insulators
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• Holey topological thermoelectrics
• Weak antilocalization and electron-electron interaction in coupled multiple-channel transport in a Bi${}_2$Se${}_3$ thin film
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• Topological Dirac line nodes and superconductivity coexist in SnSe at high pressure
• Thermoelectric performance of classical topological insulator nanowires
• Growth of quantum well films of topological insulator Bi2Se3 on insulating substrate
• Disentangling the magnetoelectric and thermoelectric transport in topological insulator thin films
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• Thermoelectric Effects and Topological Insulators
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• Signature of the topological surface state in the thermoelectric properties of Bi${}_2$Te${}_3$
• Quantum Transport and Potential of Topological States for Thermoelectricity in Bi${}_2$Te${}_3$ Thin Films
• Ultrafast carrier-lattice interactions and interlayer modulations of Bi2Se3 by X-ray free electron laser diffraction
• Continuum Theory of Edge States of Topological Insulators: Variational Principle and Boundary Conditions
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• Prediction of the High Thermoelectric Performance of Pnictogen Dichalcogenide Layered Compounds with Quasi-One-Dimensional Gapped Dirac-like Band Dispersion
• Interface symmetry and spin control in topological insulator-semiconductor heterostructures
• Optical Conductivity of Topological Insulator Thin Films in a Quantizing Magnetic Field
• Highly Tunable Spin-Orbit Torque and Anisotropic Magnetoresistance in a Topological Insulator Thin Film Attached to Ferromagnetic Layer
• Tuning thermoelectric power factor by crystal-field and spin-orbit couplings in Kondo lattice materials
• Thermoelectric efficiency of topological insulators in a magnetic field
• Enhanced thermoelectricity at the ultra-thin film limit
• Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in the local density of topological surface states
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• Band Structure and Polarization Effects in Photothermoelectric Spectroscopy of a Bi2Se3 Device
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• Enhancement of the Thermoelectric Figure of Merit in the Dirac Semimetal Cd${}_3$As${}_2$ by Band-Structure and -Filling Control
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• Thermoelectric refrigerator based on asymmetric surfaces of a magnetic topological insulator
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• Dynamical density response and collective modes of topological insulator ultra-thin films
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