Surface-bulk coupling in a Bi$_2$Te$_3$ nanoplate grown by van der Waals epitaxy

TL;DR

This study investigates how surface-bulk electron scattering influences quantum transport in Bi$_2$Te$_3$ nanoplates, revealing that coherent scattering significantly affects dephasing and mobility, with implications for topological insulator device performance.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of surface-bulk electron scattering effects on quantum transport in Bi$_2$Te$_3$ nanoplates grown by van der Waals epitaxy.

Findings

Mobility increases as carrier density decreases due to reduced bulk-surface scattering.

Dephasing is mainly caused by electron-electron interactions with small energy transfers.

Surface-bulk scattering times decrease with lower gate voltage and higher temperature.

Abstract

We report on an experimental study of the effect of coherent surface-bulk electron scattering on quantum transport in a three-dimensional topological insulator Bi$_2$Te$_3$ nanoplate. The nanoplate is grown via van der Waals epitaxy on a mica substrate and a top-gated Hall-bar device is fabricated from the nanoplate directly on the growth substrate. Top-gate voltage dependent measurements of the sheet resistance of the device reveal that the transport carriers in the nanoplate are of n-type and that, with decreasing top gate voltage, the carrier density in the nanoplate is decreased. However, the mobility is increased with decreasing top-gate voltage. This mobility increase with decreasing carrier density in the nanoplate is demonstrated to arise from a decrease in bulk-to-surface electron scattering rate. Low-field magnetotransport measurements are performed at low temperatures. The measured magnetoconductivity of the nanoplate shows typical weak anti-localization (WAL) characteristics. We analyze the measurements by taking surface-bulk inter-channel electron scattering into account and extract dephasing times ${\tau}_{\phi}$, diffusion coefficients $D$ of electrons at the top surface and in the bulk, and the surface-bulk scattering times ${\tau}_{SB}$ as a function of top-gate voltage and temperature. It is found that the dephasing in the nanoplate arises dominantly from electron-electron scattering with small energy transfers. It is also found that the ratio of ${\tau}_{\phi}$/${\tau}_{SB}$ (a measure of the surface-bulk electron coherent coupling) is decreased with decreasing gate voltage or increasing temperature. We demonstrate that taking the surface-bulk coherent electron scattering in our Bi$_2$Te$_3$ nanoplate into account is essential to understand quantum transport measurements at low temperatures.