Electrostatic Coupling between Two Surfaces of a Topological Insulator Nanodevice

Abstract

We report on electronic transport measurements of dual-gated nano-devices of the low-carrier density topological insulator Bi1.5Sb0.5Te1.7Se1.3. In all devices the upper and lower surface states are independently tunable to the Dirac point by the top and bottom gate electrodes. In thin devices, electric fields are found to penetrate through the bulk, indicating finite capacitive coupling between the surface states. A charging model allows us to use the penetrating electric field as a measurement of the inter-surface capacitance $C_{TI}$ and the surface state energy-density relationship $\mu$(n), which is found to be consistent with independent ARPES measurements. At high magnetic fields, increased field penetration through the surface states is observed, strongly suggestive of the opening of a surface state band gap due to broken time-reversal symmetry.

5 pages, 4 figures, accepted to Physical Review Letters

References in corpus (35)

• Topological Insulators
• Topological insulators and superconductors
• Boron nitride substrates for high-quality graphene electronics
• Experimental Observation of the Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect in a Magnetic Topological Insulator
• Quantized Anomalous Hall Effect in Magnetic Topological Insulators
• Gate-induced insulating state in bilayer graphene devices
• STM Spectroscopy of ultra-flat graphene on hexagonal boron nitride
• Observation of the fractional ac Josephson effect: the signature of Majorana particles
• Large bulk resistivity and surface quantum oscillations in the topological insulator Bi2Te2Se
• p-type Bi2Se3 for topological insulator and low temperature thermoelectric applications
• Band structure engineering in (Bi1-xSbx)2Te3 ternary topological insulators
• Bulk Band Gap and Surface State Conduction Observed in Voltage-Tuned Crystals of the Topological Insulator Bi${}_2$Se${}_3$
• Ambipolar Field Effect in Topological Insulator Nanoplates of (BixSb1-x)2Te3
• Surface conduction of topological Dirac electrons in bulk insulating Bi2Se3
• Unconventional Josephson Effect in Hybrid Superconductor-Topological Insulator Devices
• Ultrafast Optical Excitation of a Persistent Surface-State Population in the Topological Insulator Bi2Se3
• Observation of Dirac Holes and Electrons in a Topological Insulator
• Optimizing the Bi_(2-x)Sb_(x)Te_(3-y)Se_(y) solid solutions to approach the intrinsic topological insulator regime
• Josephson supercurrent through a topological insulator surface state
• Surface State Transport and Ambipolar Electric Field Effect in Bi2Se3 Nanodevices
• Measurement of intrinsic Dirac fermion cooling on the surface of a topological insulator Bi${}_2$Se${}_3$ using time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy
• Exciton condensation and charge fractionalization in a topological insulator film
• Optical characterization of Bi${}_2$Se${}_3$ in a magnetic field: infrared evidence for magnetoelectric coupling in a topological insulator material
• Berry phase of non-ideal Dirac fermions in topological insulators
• Surface dominated transport in single crystalline nanoflake devices of topological insulator Bi1.5Sb0.5Te1.8Se1.2
• Direct Measurement of the Fermi Energy in Graphene Using a Double Layer Structure
• Gate-tuned Differentiation of Surface-conducting States in Bi1.5Sb0.5Te1.7Se1.3 Topological-insulator Thin Crystals
• Growth of High-Mobility Bi2Te2Se Nanoplatelets on hBN Sheets by van der Waals Epitaxy
• Far infrared cyclotron resonance and Faraday effect in Bi2Se3
• Unexpectedly robust protection from backscattering in the topological insulator Bi${}_{1.5}$Sb${}_{0.5}$Te${}_{1.7}$Se${}_{1.3}$
• 2D transport and screening in topological insulator surface states
• Quantum Hall Superfluids in Topological Insulator Thin Films
• Effect of bulk charged impurities on the bulk and surface transport in three-dimensional topological insulators
• Ambipolar transport in bulk crystals of a topological insulator by gating with ionic liquid
• Quantum Hall effect in a singly and doubly connected 3D topological insulator

Cited by in corpus (19)

• Opportunities in topological insulator devices
• Realization of a vertical topological p-n junction in epitaxial $\mathrm{S}{\mathrm{b}}_2\mathrm{T}{\mathrm{e}}_3/B{\mathrm{i}}_2\mathrm{T}{\mathrm{e}}_3$ heterostructures
• Quantum transport of two-species Dirac fermions in dual-gated three-dimensional topological insulators
• In-plane Topological p-n Junction in the Three-Dimensional Topological Insulator Bi${}_{2-x}$Sb${}_x$Te${}_{3-y}$Se${}_y$
• Gate-Variable Mid-Infrared Optical Transitions in a $(B{i}_{1-x}S{b}_x{)}_{2}T{e}_3$ Topological Insulator
• Tuning insulator-semimetal transitions in 3D topological insulator thin films by inter-surface hybridization and in-plane magnetic fields
• Tunable Coupling between Surface States of a Three-Dimensional Topological Insulator in the Quantum Hall Regime
• Band Structure of Topological Insulator BiSbTe1.25Se1.75
• Josephson currents induced by the Witten effect
• Interaction between counter-propagating quantum Hall edge channels in the 3D topological insulator BiSbTeSe${}_2$
• Landau Levels of Topologically-Protected Surface States Probed by Dual-Gated Quantum Capacitance
• 2D-Dirac surface states and bulk gap probed via quantum capacitance in a 3D topological insulator
• Topological insulator spin transistor
• Coupling-decoupling of conducting topological surface states in thick Bi${}_2$Se${}_3$ single crystals
• Metal-insulator transition and tunable Dirac-cone surface state in the topological insulator TlBi1-xSbxTe2 studied by angle-resolved photoemission
• Topological magnetic dipolar interaction and non-local electric magnetization control in topological insulator heterostructures
• Universal Conductance Fluctuations of Topological Insulators
• Observation of the surface hybridization gap in the electrical transport properties of the ultrathin topological insulator (Bi${}_{1-x}$Sb${}_x$)${}_2$Te${}_3$
• Gate-tunable anomalous Hall effect in stacked van der Waals ferromagnetic insulator - topological insulator heterostructures