We report that Bi₂Se₃ thin films can be epitaxially grown on SrTiO₃ substrates, which allow for very large tunablity in carrier density with a back gate. The observed low field magnetoconductivity due to weak antilocalization (WAL) has a very weak gate-voltage dependence unless the electron density is reduced to very low values. Such a transition in WAL is correlated with unusual changes in longitudinal and Hall resistivities. Our results suggest a much suppressed bulk conductivity at large negative gate voltages and a possible role of surface states in the WAL phenomena.

We demonstrate that the weak antilocalization effect can serve as a convenient method for detecting decoupled surface transport in topological insulator thin films. In the regime where a bulk Fermi surface coexists with the surface states, the low field magnetoconductivity is described well by the Hikami-Larkin-Nagaoka equation for single component transport of non-interacting electrons. When the electron density is lowered, the magnetotransport behavior deviates from the single component description and strong evidence is found for independent conducting channels at the bottom and top surfaces. Magnetic-field-dependent part of corrections to conductivity due to electron-electron interactions is shown to be negligible for the fields relevant to weak antilocalization.

To study the interface between a conventional superconductor and a topological insulator, we fabricated Pb-Bi2Te3-Pb lateral and sandwiched junctions, and performed electron transport measurements down to low temperatures. The results show that there is a strong superconducting proximity effect between Bi2Te3 and Pb, as that a supercurrent can be established along the thickness direction of the Bi2Te3 flakes (100~300 nm thick) at a temperature very close to the superconducting Tc of Pb. Moreover, a Josephson current can be established over several microns in the lateral direction between two Pb electrodes on the Bi2Te3 surface. We have further demonstrated that superconducting quantum interference devices can be constructed based on the proximity-effect-induced superconductivity. The critical current of the devices exhibits s-wave-like interference and Fraunhofer diffraction patterns. With improved designs, Josephson devices of this type would provide a test-bed for exploring novel phenomena such as Majorana fermions in the future.

Map to Majorana fermions in nanowires is revealed.

The growth of high quality, gate‐tunable topological insulator Bi2Se3 thin films on SrTiO3 substrates by molecular beam epitaxy is reported in this paper. The optimized substrate preparation procedures are critical for obtaining undoped Bi2Se3 thin films with sufficiently low carrier densities while maintaining the strong dielectric strength of the substrates. The large tunability in chemical potential is manifested in the greatly enhanced longitudinal resistivity and the reversal of the sign of the Hall resistivity at negative back‐gate voltages. These thin films provide a convenient basis for fabrication of hybrid devices consisting of gate‐tunable topological insulators and other materials such as a superconductor and a ferromagnet.

No abstract

We have investigated the conductance spectra of Sn-Bi2Se3 interface junctions down to 250 mK and in different magnetic fields. A number of conductance anomalies were observed below the superconducting transition temperature of Sn, including a small gap different from that of Sn, and a zero-bias conductance peak growing up at lower temperatures. We discussed the possible origins of the smaller gap and the zero-bias conductance peak. These phenomena support that a proximityeffect-induced chiral superconducting phase is formed at the interface between the superconducting Sn and the strong spin-orbit coupling material Bi2Se3.

We perform tunneling measurements on indium antimonide nanowire/superconductor hybrid devices fabricated for the studies of Majorana bound states. At finite magnetic field, resonances that strongly resemble Majorana bound states, including zero-bias pinning, become common to the point of ubiquity. Since Majorana bound states are predicted in only a limited parameter range in nanowire devices, we seek an alternative explanation for the observed zero-bias peaks. With the help of a self-consistent Poission-Schrödinger multiband model developed in parallel, we identify several families of trivial subgap states which overlap and interact, giving rise to a crowded spectrum near zero energy and zero-bias conductance peaks in experiments. These findings advance the search for Majorana bound states through improved understanding of broader phenomena found in superconductor-semiconductor systems.