Local electronic and magnetic properties of the doped topological insulators Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$:Ca and Bi$_{2}$Te$_{3}$:Mn investigated using ion-implanted $^{8}$Li $\beta$-NMR

TL;DR

This study uses depth-resolved $eta$-NMR to investigate the local electronic and magnetic properties of doped topological insulators Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$:Ca and Bi$_{2}$Te$_{3}$:Mn, revealing diffusion behaviors, doping effects, and magnetic transitions relevant for probing topological surface states.

Contribution

It provides detailed $eta$-NMR characterization of doped topological insulators, demonstrating the potential for depth-resolved studies of their surface states and magnetic properties.

Findings

Li diffusion with activation energies of 0.4 eV and 0.2 eV in BSC and BTM

Metallic-like NMR behavior at low temperatures in doped samples

Persistence of Li signal through magnetic transition in BTM

Abstract

We report $\beta$-detected nuclear magnetic resonance ($\beta$-NMR) measurements in Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$:Ca (BSC) and Bi$_{2}$Te$_{3}$:Mn (BTM) single crystals using $^{8}$Li$^{+}$ implanted to depths on the order of 100 nm. Above $\sim 200$ K, spin-lattice relaxation (SLR) reveals diffusion of $^{8}$Li$^{+}$, with activation energies of $\sim 0.4$ eV ($\sim 0.2$ eV) in BSC (BTM). At lower temperatures, the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) properties are those of a heavily doped semiconductor in the metallic limit, with Korringa relaxation and a small, negative, temperature-dependent Knight shift in BSC. From this, we make a detailed comparison with the isostructural tetradymite Bi$_{2}$Te$_{2}$Se (BTS) [McFadden et al., Phys Rev. B 99, 125201 (2019)]. In the magnetic BTM, the effects of the dilute Mn moments predominate, but remarkably the $^{8}$Li signal is not wiped out through the magnetic transition at 13 K, with a prominent critical peak in the SLR that is suppressed in a high applied field. This detailed characterization of the $^{8}$Li NMR response is an important step towards using depth-resolved $\beta$-NMR to study the low-energy properties of the chiral topological surface state (TSS). With the bulk NMR response now established in several Bi$_{2}$Ch$_{3}$ tetradymite topological insulators (TIs), the prospect of directly probing their chiral TSS using the depth resolution afforded by $\beta$-NMR remains strong.