Bismuth-based Nanoribbons Show 'Topological' Transport, Potential for New Technologies

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A key finding was that the researchers documented the use of nanoribbons to measure so-called Aharonov-Bohm oscillations, which is possible by conducting electrons in opposite directions in ring-like paths around the nanoribbons. The structure of the nanoribbon - a nanowire that is topologically the same as a cylinder - is key to the discovery because it allows the study of electrons as they travel in a circular direction around the ribbon. The electrons conduct only on the surface of the nanowires, tracing out a cylindrical circulation.

“If you let electrons travel in two paths around a ring, in left and right paths, and they meet at the other end of the ring then they will interfere either constructively or destructively depending on the phase difference created by a magnetic field, resulting in either high or low conductivity, respectively, showing the quantum nature of electrons behaving as waves,” Jauregui said.

The researchers demonstrated a new variation on this oscillation in topological insulator surfaces by inducing the spin helical mode of the electrons. The result is the ability to flip from constructive to destructive interference and back.

“This provides very definitive evidence that we are measuring the spin helical electrons,” Jauregui said. “We are measuring these topological surface states. This effect really hasn’t been seen very convincingly until recently, so now this experiment really provides clear evidence that we are talking about these spin helical electrons propagating on the cylinder, so this is one aspect of this oscillation.”

Findings also showed this oscillation as a function of “gate voltage,” representing another way to switch conduction from high to low.

“The switch occurs whenever the circumference of the nanoribbon contains just an integer number of the quantum mechanical wavelength, or ‘fermi wavelength,’ which is tuned by the gate voltage of the electrons wrapping around the surface,” Chen said.

It was the first time researchers have seen this kind of gate-dependent oscillation in nanoribbons and further correlates it to the topological insulator band structure of bismuth telluride.

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