title: In-plane transport and enhanced thermoelectric performance in thin films of the topological insulators Bi₂Te₃ and Bi₂Se₃.
abstract: Several small-band-gap semiconductors are now known to protect metallic surface states as a consequence of the topology of the bulk electron wave functions. The known "topological insulators" with this behavior include the important thermoelectric materials Bi₂Te₃ and Bi₂Se₃, whose surfaces are observed in photoemission experiments to have an unusual electronic structure with a single Dirac cone. We study in-plane (i.e., horizontal) transport in thin films made of these materials. The surface states from top and bottom surfaces hybridize, and conventional diffusive transport predicts that the tunable hybridization-induced band gap leads to increased thermoelectric performance at low temperatures. Beyond simple diffusive transport, the conductivity shows a crossover from the spin-orbit-induced antilocalization at a single surface to ordinary localization.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Pouyan
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ghaemi
authors.forename: Roger S K
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Mong
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Moore