Evidence for a quantum-spin-Hall phase in graphene decorated with Bi_2Te_3 nanoparticles
Abstract
Realization of the quantum spin Hall effect in graphene devices has remained an outstanding challenge dating back to the inception of the field of topological insulators. Graphene's exceptionally weak spin-orbit coupling—stemming from carbon's low mass—poses the primary obstacle. We experimentally and theoretically study artificially enhanced spin-orbit coupling in graphene via random decoration with dilute Bi_2Te_3 nanoparticles. Multiterminal resistance measurements suggest the presence of helical edge states characteristic of a quantum spin Hall phase; the magnetic field and temperature dependence of the resistance peaks, x-ray photoelectron spectra, scanning tunneling spectroscopy, and first-principles calculations further support this scenario. These observations highlight a pathway to spintronics and quantum information applications in graphene-based quantum spin Hall platforms.
Additional Information
© 2018 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC). Submitted 6 July 2018; Accepted 10 October 2018; Published 9 November 2018. J.H. thanks J. Alicea, Y. Shimazaki, T. Yamamoto, S. Tarucha, T. Ando, S. Tang, Z.-X. Shen, M. Dresselhaus, J. Shi, P. Jarillo-Herrero, A. H. Macdonald, and P. Kim for their technical contributions, fruitful discussions, and encouragement. Funding: The work at the Aoyama Gakuin University was partly supported by a grant for private universities and a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (15K13277) awarded by MEXT. Work at the University of Tokyo was partly supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (grant no. 26103003). DFT calculations at UCI were supported by DOE-BES (grant no. DE-FG02-05ER46237), and the computer simulations were supported by the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC). Author contributions: J.H., S.K., and R.W. conceived the ideas. K.H., H.M., and T.N. carried out the experiments and measurements. J.L. and R.W. performed the calculations. J.H. and R.W. wrote the manuscript. The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Data and materials availability: All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper and/or the Supplementary Materials. Additional data related to this paper may be requested from the authors.Attached Files
Published - eaau6915.full.pdf
Submitted - 1806.07027.pdf
Supplemental Material - aau6915_SM.pdf
Supplemental Material - aau6915_movie_S1.mov
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Additional details
- Alternative title
- Evidence for a quantum-spin-Hall phase in graphene decorated with Bi2Te3 nanoparticles
- Eprint ID
- 87716
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20180710-140608150
- 15K13277
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)
- 26103003
- Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)
- DE-FG02-05ER46237
- Department of Energy (DOE)
- DMR-1723367
- NSF
- W911NF-17-1-0323
- Army Research Office (ARO)
- 1250
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- Created
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2018-07-10Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-15Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Institute for Quantum Information and Matter, Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics