Electric Field-Tuned Topological Phase Transition in Ultra-Thin Na3Bi - Towards a Topological Transistor

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that ultrathin Na3Bi can undergo an electric field-induced topological phase transition with large bandgaps, making it a promising candidate for room-temperature topological transistors.

Contribution

The paper provides experimental evidence of electric field-controlled topological phase transitions in ultrathin Na3Bi with large bandgaps suitable for practical devices.

Findings

Large bandgap (>400 meV) in 2D Na3Bi without electric field.

Electric field can close and reopen the bandgap, inducing a topological phase transition.

Ultrathin Na3Bi's bandgaps exceed thermal energy at room temperature, enabling potential topological transistors.

Abstract

The electric field induced quantum phase transition from topological to conventional insulator has been proposed as the basis of a topological field effect transistor [1-4]. In this scheme an electric field can switch 'on' the ballistic flow of charge and spin along dissipationless edges of the two-dimensional (2D) quantum spin Hall insulator [5-9], and when 'off' is a conventional insulator with no conductive channels. Such as topological transistor is promising for low-energy logic circuits [4], which would necessitate electric field-switched materials with conventional and topological bandgaps much greater than room temperature, significantly greater than proposed to date [6-8]. Topological Dirac semimetals(TDS) are promising systems in which to look for topological field-effect switching, as they lie at the boundary between conventional and topological phases [3,10-16]. Here we use scanning probe microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS) and angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) to show that mono- and bilayer films of TDS Na3Bi [3,17] are 2D topological insulators with bulk bandgaps >400 meV in the absence of electric field. Upon application of electric field by doping with potassium or by close approach of the STM tip, the bandgap can be completely closed then re-opened with conventional gap greater than 100 meV. The large bandgaps in both the conventional and quantum spin Hall phases, much greater than the thermal energy kT = 25 meV at room temperature, suggest that ultrathin Na3Bi is suitable for room temperature topological transistor operation.