Two-Dimensional Quantum Hall Effect and Zero Energy State in Few-Layer ZrTe

Overview

Journal Nano Lett

Publisher American Chemical Society

Specialty Biotechnology

Date 2021 Jul 12

PMID 34251198

Authors

Fangdong Tang

Peipei Wang

Mingquan He

Masahiko Isobe

Genda Gu

Qiang Li

Liyuan Zhang

Jurgen H Smet

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Topological matter plays a central role in today's condensed matter research. Zirconium pentatelluride (ZrTe) has attracted attention as a Dirac semimetal at the boundary of weak and strong topological insulators (TI). Few-layer ZrTe is anticipated to exhibit the quantum spin Hall effect due to topological states inside the band gap, but sample degradation inflicted by ambient conditions and processing has so far hampered the fabrication of high quality devices. The quantum Hall effect (QHE), serving as the litmus test for 2D systems to be considered of high quality, has not been observed so far. Only a 3D variant on bulk was reported. Here, we succeeded in preserving the intrinsic properties of thin films lifting the carrier mobility to ∼3500 cm V s, sufficient to observe the integer QHE and a bulk band gap related zero-energy state. The magneto-transport results offer evidence for the gapless topological states within this gap.

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