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.

Abstract : We develop a tractable theoretical model to investigate the thermoelectric (TE) transport properties of surface states in topological insulator thin films (TITFs) of Bi2 Se3 at room temperature. The hybridization between top and bottom surface states in the TITF plays a significant role. With the increasing hybridization-induced surface gap, the electrical conductivity and electron thermal conductivity decrease while the Seebeck coefficient increases. This is due to the metal-semiconductor transition induced by the surface-state hybridization. Based on these TE transport coefficients, the TE figure-of-merit ZT is evaluated. It is shown that ZT can be greatly improved by the surface-state hybridization. Our theoretical results are pertinent to the exploration of the TE transport properties of surface states in TITFs and to the potential application of Bi2 Se3 -based TITFs as high-performance TE materials and devices.

This book serves the environmentalists to track the development of photocatalytic materials and technology in the present context and to explore future trends. Photocatalysis is the most influential greener technology being researched, developed and adopted for the treatment of wastewater. The technological advancements in the area of smart hybrid photocatalytic materials have gained momentum in the present era. The rational designing of photocatalytic materials with a multi-pronged approach opens a new chapter for environmental detoxification. Other important aspects relate to the transfer of this nanostructured photocatalytic technology to real backdrops. Harnessing natural solar energy for energy and environmental roles is another crucial criterion in designing photocatalysts.

Searching for energy dissipation-less systems has become increasingly important for low power electronic devices. Topological insulators, a new topological state of quantum matter, have recently been proposed as an emerging material for use in low power electronics, because of the unique transport along its topologically protected edge/surface states. In addition, it has been predicted that the incorporation of magnetic elements into topological insulators could lead to the quantum anomalous Hall state, which is a truly dissipation-less system. However, the material quality of topological insulator thin films remains as a major stumbling block for exploring the novel physics of topological insulators and their proposed applications. In the first part of this thesis, I will first describe an advanced thin film deposition technique, molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and the mini-MBE system we designed and built for topological insulator thin film growth. Then I will briefly illustrate some basic principles and sample preparation methods for a variety of characterization techniques we used for the material property investigation. In the second part of this thesis, I will present the growth and characterization of topological insulator bismuth telluride thin films grown by a two-step MBE process developed as part of this research. By optimizing the growth recipe and particularly developing the two-step growth method, defect densities were significantly reduced and higher crystal and surface quality bismuth telluride thin films were achieved. The existence of a topological surface state on our bismuth telluride thin films was also confirmed. The Fermi level of our bismuth telluride thin film was tuned to very close to the bulk gap region. The successful growth of centimeter-sized, uniform, high quality topological insulator thin films provides an excellent platform for both fundamental studies of the properties of topological insulators and fabrications of mesoscopic devices. Finally, I will report on the first successful growth of gadolinium substituted bismuth telluride thin films with high Gd concentrations by MBE. We systematically investigated the crystal structure, band structure, magnetic, and electronic properties of gadolinium substituted bismuth telluride thin films. The topological surface state was found to remain intact by Gd substitution into bismuth telluride. Although ferromagnetic behavior in gadolinium substituted bismuth telluride thin films was not observed above 2K by both magnetic and magneto-transport measurements, gadolinium substituted bismuth telluride thin films were found to have a Curie susceptibility due to the paramagnetic Gd ions with an atomic magnetic moment of 6.93 Bohr magneton per Gd ion, which suggests that it is possible to realize dissipation-less transport with a small external magnetic field or with a ferromagnetic layer on top of gadolinium substituted bismuth telluride thin films.