title: Anomalous Aharonov-Bohm conductance oscillations from topological insulator surface states.
abstract: We study Aharonov-Bohm (AB) conductance oscillations arising from the surface states of a topological insulator nanowire, when a magnetic field is applied along its length. With strong surface disorder, these oscillations are predicted to have a component with anomalous period Φ(0)=hc/e, twice the conventional period. The conductance maxima are achieved at odd multiples of 1/2Φ(0), implying that a π AB phase for electrons strengthens the metallic nature of surface states. This effect is special to topological insulators, and serves as a defining transport property. A key ingredient, the surface curvature induced Berry phase, is emphasized here. We discuss similarities and differences from recent experiments on Bi2Se3 nanoribbons, and optimal conditions for observing this effect.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Ashvin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vishwanath