Charge puddles in a completely compensated topological insulator

Abstract

Compensation of intrinsic charges is widely used to reduce the bulk conductivity of 3D topological insulators (TIs). Here we use low temperature electron irradiation-induced defects paired with in-situ electrical transport measurements to fine-tune the degree of compensation in Bi2Te3. The coexistence of electrons and holes at the point of optimal compensation can only be explained by bulk carriers forming charge puddles. These need to be considered to understand the electric transport in compensated TI samples, irrespective of the method of compensation.

References in corpus (23)

• Large bulk resistivity and surface quantum oscillations in the topological insulator Bi2Te2Se
• Coexistence of the topological state and a two-dimensional electron gas on the surface of Bi2Se3
• Impurity effect on weak anti-localization in the topological insulator Bi2Te3
• Strong surface scattering in ultrahigh mobility Bi2Se3 topological insulator crystals
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• Fermi level tuning and a large activation gap achieved in the topological insulator Bi_{2}Te_{2}Se by Sn doping
• Why is the bulk resistivity of topological insulators so small?
• Weak antilocalization in HgTe quantum wells and topological surface states: Massive versus massless Dirac fermions
• Evidence of surface transport and weak anti-localization in single crystal of Bi2Te2Se topological insulator
• Magnetothermoelectric properties of Bi2Se3
• Revealing puddles of electrons and holes in compensated topological insulators
• Direct observation of band bending in topological insulator Bi2Se3
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• Coexistence of electron and hole transport in graphene
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Cited by in corpus (7)

• Charge puddles in the bulk and on the surface of the topological insulator BiSbTeSe${}_2$ studied by scanning tunneling microscopy and optical spectroscopy
• Hyers-Ulam stability of elliptic Möbius difference equation
• Length scale of puddle formation in compensation-doped semiconductors and topological insulators
• Transport properties of band engineered p-n heterostructures of epitaxial Bi${}_2$Se${}_3$/(Bi${}_{1-x}$Sb${}_x$)${}_2$(Te${}_{1-y}$Se${}_y$)${}_3$ topological insulators
• Momentum relaxation effects in 2D-Xene field effect device structures
• Large positive magneto-conductivity at microwave frequencies in the compensated topological insulator BiSbTeSe2
• Realizing a topological diode effect on the surface of a topological Kondo insulator