1. Topological surface conduction in Kondo insulator YbB12.
- Author
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Sato, Y, Xiang, Z, Kasahara, Y, Kasahara, S, Chen, L, Tinsman, C, Iga, F, Singleton, J, Nair, N L, Maksimovic, N, Analytis, J G, Li, Lu, and Matsuda, Y
- Subjects
TOPOLOGICAL insulators ,ELECTRICAL resistivity ,SURFACE states ,SINGLE crystals ,LOW temperatures ,ELECTRIC insulators & insulation - Abstract
Kondo insulators have recently aroused great interest because they are promising materials that host a topological insulator state caused by the strong electron interactions. Moreover, recent observations of the quantum oscillations in the insulating state of Kondo insulators have come as a great surprise. Here, to investigate the surface electronic state of a prototype Kondo insulator YbB
12 , we measured the transport properties of single crystals and microstructures. In all samples, the temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity is insulating at high temperatures and the resistivity exhibits a plateau at low temperatures. The magnitude of the plateau value decreases with reducing sample thickness, which is quantitatively consistent with the surface electronic conduction in the bulk insulating YbB12 . Moreover, the magnetoresistance of the microstructures exhibits a weak-antilocalization effect at low field. These results are consistent with the presence of a topologically protected surface state, suggesting that YbB12 is a candidate material for a topological Kondo insulator. The high field resistivity measurements up to µ0 H = 50 T of the microstructures provide supporting evidence that the quantum oscillations of the resistivity in YbB12 occurs in the insulating bulk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2021
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