This book presents the transport studies of topological insulator thin films grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Through band structure engineering, the ideal topological insulators, (Bi1−xSbx)2Te3 ternary alloys, are successfully fabricated, which possess truly insulating bulk and tunable conducting surface states. Further transport measurements on these ternary alloys reveal a disentanglement between the magnetoelectric and thermoelectric properties. In magnetically doped topological insulators, the fascinating quantum anomalous Hall effect was experimentally observed for the first time. Moreover, the topology-driven magnetic quantum phase transition was Systematically controlled by varying the strength of the spin-orbital coupling. Readers will not only benefit from the description of the technique of transport measurements, but will also be inspired by the understanding of topological insulators.

Topological Insulators (TI) are a novel class of materials that are ideally insulating in the bulk, but have gapless, metallic states at the surface. These surface states have very exciting properties such as suppressed backscattering and spin-momentum locking, which are of great interest for research efforts towards dissipation-less electronics and spintronics. The popular thermo-electrics from the Bi chalcogenide family -- Bi2Se3 and Bi2Te3 -- have been experimentally demonstrated to be promising candidate TI materials, and form the chosen material system for this dissertation research. The first part of this dissertation research focuses on low temperature magneto-transport measurements of mesoscopic topological insulator devices (Chapter 3). The top-down patterning of epitaxial thin films of Bi2Se3 and Bi2Te3 (that are plagued with bulk conduction) is motivated, in part, by an effort to enhance the surface-to-volume ratio in mesoscopic channels. At cryogenic temperatures, transport measurements of these devices reveal periodic conductance fluctuations in straight channel devices, despite the lack of any explicit patterning of the TI film into a ring or a loop. A careful analysis of the surface morphology and comparison with the transport data then demonstrate that scattering off the edges of triangular plateaus at the surface leads to the creation of Aharonov-Bohm electronic orbits responsible for the periodicity. Another major focus of this dissertation work is on combining topological insulators with magnetism. This has been shown to open a gap in the surface states leading to possibilities of magnetic "gating" and the realization of dissipation-less transport at zero-field, amongst several other exotic quantum phenomena. In this dissertation, I present two different schemes for probing these effects in electrical transport devices -- interfacing with insulating ferromagnets (Chapter 4) and bulk magnetic doping (Chapter 5). In Chapter 4, I shall present the integration of GdN with Bi2Se3 thin films. Careful structural, magnetic and electrical characterization of the heterostructures is employed to confirm that the magnetic species is solely restricted to the surface, and that the ferromagnetic GdN layer to be insulating, ensuring current flow solely through the TI layer. We also devise a novel device geometry that enables direct comparison of the magneto-transport properties of TI films with and without proximate magnetism, all, in a single device. A comparative study of weak anti-localization suggested that the overlying GdN suppressed quantum interference in the top surface state. In our second generation hetero-structure devices, GdN is interfaced with low-carrier density, gate-tunable thin films of (Bi,Sb)2Te3 grown on SrTiO3 substrates. These devices enable us to map out the comparison of magneto-transport, as the chemical potential is tuned from the bulk conduction band into the bulk valence band.In a second approach to study the effects of magnetism on TI's, I shall present, in Chapter 5, our results from magnetic doping of (Bi,Sb)2Te3 thin films with Cr -- a system that was recently demonstrated to be a Quantum Anomalous Hall (QAH) insulator. In a Cr-rich regime, a highly insulating, high Curie temperature ferromagnetic phase is achieved. However, a careful, iterative process of tuning the composition of this complex alloy enabled access to the QAHE regime, with the observation of near dissipation-less transport and perfect Hall quantization at zero external field. Furthermore, we demonstrate a field tilt driven crossover between a quantum anomalous Hall phase and a gapless, ferromagnetic TI phase. This crossover manifests itself in an electrically tunable, giant anisotropic magneto-resistance effect that we employ as a quantitative probe of edge transport in this system.

This book reveals unique transport phenomena and functionalities in topological insulators coupled with magnetism and superconductivity. Topological insulators are a recently discovered class of materials that possess a spin-momentum-locked surface state. Their exotic spin texture makes them an exciting platform for investigating emergent phenomena, especially when coupled with magnetism or superconductivity. Focusing on the strong correlation between electricity and magnetism in magnetic topological insulators, the author presents original findings on current-direction-dependent nonreciprocal resistance, current-induced magnetization reversal and chiral edge conduction at the domain wall. In addition, he demonstrates how the coupling between superconductivity and topological surface state leads to substantial nonreciprocal resistance. The author also elucidates the origins of these phenomena and deepens readers’ understanding of the topologically nontrivial electronic state. The book includes several works which are published in top journals and were selected for the President’s Award by the University of Tokyo and for the Ikushi Prize, awarded to distinguished Ph.D. students in Japan.

The recently discovered time-reversal-invariant topological insulator (TI) has led to the flourishing of unique physics along with promises for innovative electronic and spintronic applications. However, the as-grown TI materials are not truly insulating but with a non-trivial bulk carrier density, which makes difficulties to the transport methods. In our work, we study the fundamental transport properties of TI and its heterostructure, in which various approaches are utilized to better reveal the surface state properties. In particular, in Chapter 2, in-situ Al surface passivation of Bi2Se3 inside MBE is investigated to inhibit the degradation process, reduce carrier density and reveal the pristine topological surface states. In contrast, we show the degradation of surface states for the unpassivated control samples, in which the 2D carrier density is increased by 39.2% due to ambient n-doping, the Shubnikov-de Hass oscillations are completely absent, and a deviation from WAL weak antilocalization is observed. In Chapter 3, through optimizing the material composition to achieve bulk insulating state, we present the ambipolar effect in 4-9 quintuple layers (Bi0.57Sb0.43)2Te3 thin films. We also demonstrate the evidence of a hybridized surface gap opening in (Bi0.57Sb0.43)2Te3 sample with thickness below six quintuple layers through transport and scanning tunneling spectroscopy measurements. By effective tuning the Fermi level via gate-voltage control, we unveil a striking competition between weak antilocalization and weak localization at low magnetic fields in nonmagnetic ultrathin films. In Chapter 4, we study the magnetic properties of Bi2Se3 surface states in the proximity of a high Tc ferrimagnetic insulator YIG. Proximity-induced magnetoresistance loops are observed by transport measurements with out-of-plane and in-plane magnetic fields applied. More importantly, a magnetic signal from the Bi2Se3 up to 130 K is clearly observed by magneto-optical Kerr effect measurements. Our results demonstrate the proximity-induced TI magnetism at higher temperatures, which is an important step toward room-temperature application of TI-based spintronic devices. The engineering of a TI and FMI heterostructure will open up numerous opportunities to study high temperature TI-based spintronic devices, in which the TI is controlled by breaking the TRS using a FMI with perpendicular magnetization component. A YIG film with out-of-plane anisotropy at> 300 K could potentially manipulate the magnetic properties of a TI may even above room temperature.

Topological insulator is one of the hottest research topics in solid state physics. This is the first book to describe the vibrational spectroscopies and electrical transport of topological insulator Bi2Se3, one of the most exciting areas of research in condensed matter physics. In particular, attempts have been made to summarize and develop the various theories and new experimental techniques developed over years from the studies of Raman scattering, infrared spectroscopy and electrical transport of topological insulator Bi2Se3. It is intended for material and physics researchers and graduate students doing research in the field of optical and electrical properties of topological insulators, providing them the physical understanding and mathematical tools needed to engage research in this quickly growing field. Some key topics in the emerging field of topological insulators are introduced.