Topological phase transition and highly tunable topological transport in topological crystalline insulator Pb1-x Sn x Te (111) thin films

Anqi Zhang; Feng Wei; Chenhui Yan; Fei Wang; Song Ma; Zhidong Zhang

doi:10.1088/1361-6528/ab13cf

Topological phase transition and highly tunable topological transport in topological crystalline insulator Pb_1-x Sn _x Te (111) thin films

Nanotechnology. 2019 Jul 5;30(27):275703. doi: 10.1088/1361-6528/ab13cf. Epub 2019 Mar 27.

Authors

Anqi Zhang¹, Feng Wei, Chenhui Yan, Fei Wang, Song Ma, Zhidong Zhang

Affiliation

¹ Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016, People's Republic of China. School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, People's Republic of China.

PMID: 30917345
DOI: 10.1088/1361-6528/ab13cf

Abstract

We report the magneotransport studies on the topological crystalline insulator (TCI) Pb_1-x Sn _x Te (111) single crystal thin films grown by molecular beam epitaxy. By decreasing Sn content, an enhanced sheet resistance and decreased hole density are observed in Pb_1-x Sn _x Te (111) thin films. A weak antilocalization likely related to the topological surface states is observed in transport of Pb_1-x Sn _x Te (x > 0.4) thin films, whereas a weak localization is displayed in Pb_1-x Sn _x Te (x < 0.4) thin films. This tunable weak antilocalization to weak localization transition is attributed to the open of Dirac gap because of the topological phase transition in TCI Pb_1-x Sn _x Te. Our research has a potential application in the tunable electronic and spintronic devices and is very significant to the fundamental research based on TCI Pb_1-x Sn _x Te thin film.