Electron transport, transverse and longitudinal magnetoresistance, and Shubnikov–de Haas oscillations in Bi0.83Sb0.17 topological insulator semiconductor wires

The paper describes results of experimental studies of the dependence of the resistance, transverse and longitudinal magnetoresistance, as well as the Shubnikov–de Haas (SdH) oscillations of Bi0.83Sb0.17 semiconductor single-crystal wires with diameters of (75–1100) nm, as a function of the thickness, in a temperature range of (3.1–300) K at magnetic fields of up to 14 T. The wires were prepared by liquid-phase casting. It has been found that the temperature dependences of the resistance of wires with d < 0.5 m have two regions exhibiting a semiconductor and a metallic behavior of the resistance, the two regions being separated by a maximum, which is shifted to the high-temperature region with a decrease in the wire diameter d. It has been revealed that the energy gap E increases by a factor of 2 with a decrease in wire diameter d, due to the occurrence of the quantum size effect. The “metallic” behavior of conductivity is attributed to surface states characteristic of topological insulators, which is most clearly evident in thin wires at temperatures of T < 50 K. It has been shown that, in the presence of a uniform magnetic field H, the field dependences of the longitudinal and transverse magnetoresistance in quasi-one-dimensional systems can undergo a significant change depending on the ratio of quantum wire radius to the magnetic length R = (ch/eH)1/2, as well as on the decrease in the mean free path of carriers due to scattering on the wire surface. The SdH oscillation periods exhibit anomalies that are typical neither to bulk Bi1xSbx samples nor to semimetallic wires based on Bi1xSbx alloys. This fact points to the essential role of surface states of topological insulators in 1D-systems, which lead to the occurrence of new effects that are not characteristic of other systems.