Planar Hall effect from the surface of topological insulators

A. A. Taskin; Henry F. Legg; Fan Yang; Satoshi Sasaki; Yasushi Kanai; Kazuhiko Matsumoto; Achim Rosch; Yoichi Ando

doi:10.1038/s41467-017-01474-8

Planar Hall effect from the surface of topological insulators

A. A. Taskin, Henry F. Legg, Fan Yang, Satoshi Sasaki, Yasushi Kanai, Kazuhiko Matsumoto, Achim Rosch, Yoichi Ando^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

School of Physics and Astronomy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

A prominent feature of topological insulators (TIs) is the surface states comprising of spin-nondegenerate massless Dirac fermions. Recent technical advances have made it possible to address the surface transport properties of TI thin films by tuning the Fermi levels of both top and bottom surfaces. Here we report our discovery of a novel planar Hall effect (PHE) from the TI surface, which results from a hitherto-unknown resistivity anisotropy induced by an in-plane magnetic field. This effect is observed in dual-gated devices of bulk-insulating Bi_2-x Sb _x Te₃ thin films, where the field-induced anisotropy presents a strong dependence on the gate voltage with a characteristic two-peak structure near the Dirac point. The origin of PHE is the peculiar time-reversal-breaking effect of an in-plane magnetic field, which anisotropically lifts the protection of surface Dirac fermions from backscattering. The observed PHE provides a useful tool to analyze and manipulate the topological protection of the TI surface.

Original language	English
Article number	1340
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	8
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-01474-8
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2017

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title = "Planar Hall effect from the surface of topological insulators",

abstract = "A prominent feature of topological insulators (TIs) is the surface states comprising of spin-nondegenerate massless Dirac fermions. Recent technical advances have made it possible to address the surface transport properties of TI thin films by tuning the Fermi levels of both top and bottom surfaces. Here we report our discovery of a novel planar Hall effect (PHE) from the TI surface, which results from a hitherto-unknown resistivity anisotropy induced by an in-plane magnetic field. This effect is observed in dual-gated devices of bulk-insulating Bi2-x Sb x Te3 thin films, where the field-induced anisotropy presents a strong dependence on the gate voltage with a characteristic two-peak structure near the Dirac point. The origin of PHE is the peculiar time-reversal-breaking effect of an in-plane magnetic field, which anisotropically lifts the protection of surface Dirac fermions from backscattering. The observed PHE provides a useful tool to analyze and manipulate the topological protection of the TI surface.",

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AU - Taskin, A. A.

AU - Legg, Henry F.

AU - Yang, Fan

AU - Sasaki, Satoshi

AU - Kanai, Yasushi

AU - Matsumoto, Kazuhiko

AU - Rosch, Achim

AU - Ando, Yoichi

PY - 2017/12/1

Y1 - 2017/12/1

N2 - A prominent feature of topological insulators (TIs) is the surface states comprising of spin-nondegenerate massless Dirac fermions. Recent technical advances have made it possible to address the surface transport properties of TI thin films by tuning the Fermi levels of both top and bottom surfaces. Here we report our discovery of a novel planar Hall effect (PHE) from the TI surface, which results from a hitherto-unknown resistivity anisotropy induced by an in-plane magnetic field. This effect is observed in dual-gated devices of bulk-insulating Bi2-x Sb x Te3 thin films, where the field-induced anisotropy presents a strong dependence on the gate voltage with a characteristic two-peak structure near the Dirac point. The origin of PHE is the peculiar time-reversal-breaking effect of an in-plane magnetic field, which anisotropically lifts the protection of surface Dirac fermions from backscattering. The observed PHE provides a useful tool to analyze and manipulate the topological protection of the TI surface.

AB - A prominent feature of topological insulators (TIs) is the surface states comprising of spin-nondegenerate massless Dirac fermions. Recent technical advances have made it possible to address the surface transport properties of TI thin films by tuning the Fermi levels of both top and bottom surfaces. Here we report our discovery of a novel planar Hall effect (PHE) from the TI surface, which results from a hitherto-unknown resistivity anisotropy induced by an in-plane magnetic field. This effect is observed in dual-gated devices of bulk-insulating Bi2-x Sb x Te3 thin films, where the field-induced anisotropy presents a strong dependence on the gate voltage with a characteristic two-peak structure near the Dirac point. The origin of PHE is the peculiar time-reversal-breaking effect of an in-plane magnetic field, which anisotropically lifts the protection of surface Dirac fermions from backscattering. The observed PHE provides a useful tool to analyze and manipulate the topological protection of the TI surface.

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SN - 2041-1723

VL - 8

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

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M1 - 1340

ER -

Planar Hall effect from the surface of topological insulators

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