TY  - JOUR
AU  - Lüpke, Felix
AU  - Eschbach, Markus
AU  - Heider, Tristan
AU  - Lanius, Martin
AU  - Schüffelgen, Peter
AU  - Rosenbach, Daniel
AU  - von den Driesch, Nils
AU  - Cherepanov, Vasily
AU  - Mussler, Gregor
AU  - Plucinski, Lukasz
AU  - Grützmacher, Detlev
AU  - Schneider, Claus Michael
AU  - Voigtländer, Bert
TI  - Electrical resistance of individual defects on a topological insulator surface
JO  - Nature Communications
VL  -  
SN  - 2041-1723
CY  - London
PB  - Nature Publishing Group
M1  - FZJ-2017-03316
SP  - 15704
PY  - 2017
AB  - Three-dimensional topological insulators host surface states with linear dispersion, which manifest as a Dirac cone. Nanoscale transport measurements provide direct access to the transport properties of the Dirac cone in real space and allow the detailed investigation of charge carrier scattering. Here we use scanning tunnelling potentiometry to analyse the resistance of different kinds of defects at the surface of a (Bi0.53Sb0.47)2Te3 topological insulator thin film. We find the largest localized voltage drop to be located at domain boundaries in the topological insulator film, with a resistivity about four times higher than that of a step edge. Furthermore, we resolve resistivity dipoles located around nanoscale voids in the sample surface. The influence of such defects on the resistance of the topological surface state is analysed by means of a resistor network model. The effect resulting from the voids is found to be small compared with the other defects.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000403064600001
C6  - pmid:28604672
DO  - DOI:10.1038/ncomms15704
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/829655
ER  -