Complex Quantum Systems/Condensed Matter Seminar

Nadya Mason, Urbana-Champaign

"Surface State Transport in 3D Topological Insulators"

12:30pm, RLM 11.204

Abstract: Topological insulators (TI's) are materials that are insulators in their interiors, but have unique conducting states on their surfaces. They have attracted significant interest as fundamentally new electronic phases having potential applications from dissipationless interconnects to quantum computing. In this talk, I will discuss transport measurements of the topological surface state of the 3D TI Bi2Se3. We access the surface state via chemical and electrostatic doping, which moves the chemical potential from the bulk bands into the band gap, or through the true topological regime characterized by the presence of only surface currents. I will discuss measurements of TI-superconductor junctions in this regime, as well as measurements of Aharonov-Bohm effects in TI nanowires. In both cases, we show that transport occurs primarily on the surface, which has unique properties.