Conductivity Corrections for Topological Insulators with Spin-Orbit Impurities: A New Hikami-Larkin-Nagaoka Formula

Abstract

The Hikami-Larkin-Nagaoka (HLN) formula [Prog. Theor. Phys. 63, 707 (1980)] describes the quantum corrections to the magnetoconductivity of a quasi-2D electron gas (quasi-2DEG) with parabolic dispersion. It predicts a crossover from weak localization to antilocalization as a function of the strength of scattering off spin-orbit impurities. Here, we derive the conductivity correction for massless Dirac fermions in 3D topological insulators (TIs) in the presence of spin-orbit impurities. We show that this correction is always positive and therefore we predict weak antilocalization for every value of the spin-orbit disorder. Furthermore, the correction to the diffusion constant is surprisingly linear in the strength of the impurity spin-orbit. Our results call for a reinterpretation of experimental fits for the magnetoconductivity of 3D TIs which have so far used the standard HLN formula.

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Cited by in corpus (18)

• Transport in two-dimensional topological materials: recent developments in experiment and theory
• Weak Localization and Antilocalization in Topological Materials with Impurity Spin-Orbit Interactions
• Progress in epitaxial thin-film Na3Bi as a topological electronic material
• Quantum Interference Theory of Magnetoresistance in Dirac Materials
• Quantum Transport in Weyl Semimetal Thin Films in the Presence of Spin-Orbit Coupled Impurities
• Signatures of dephasing by mirror-symmetry breaking in weak-antilocalization magnetoresistance across the topological transition in Pb${}_{1-x}$Sn${}_x$Se
• Enhanced quantum oscillations in Kondo insulators
• Influence of an anomalous temperature-dependence of the phase coherence length on the conductivity of magnetic topological insulators
• Absence of strong localization at low conductivity in the topological surface state of low disorder Sb2Te3
• Magneto-transport and Berry phase in magnetically doped Bi${}_{0.97-x}$Sb${}_{0.03}$ single crystals
• Weak antilocalization beyond the fully diffusive regime in Pb1-xSnxSe topological quantum wells
• Transport in topological insulators with bulk-surface coupling: Interference corrections and conductance fluctuations
• Room-temperature nonlinear transport and microwave rectification in antiferromagnetic MnBi${}_2$Te${}_4$ films
• Topological phase diagram of the disordered 2XY model in presence of generalized Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya Interaction
• Spin-orbit torques due to topological insulator surface states: an in-plane magnetization as a probe of extrinsic spin-orbit scattering
• Magnetic interactions of 4$f$ electrons in the topological insulator chalcogenide Bi${}_2$Se${}_3$
• Weak antilocalization in Cd3As2 thin films
• Phase-coherent loops in selectively-grown topological insulator nanoribbons