Letter
pubs.acs.org/NanoLett
Electrical Detection of Spin-Polarized Surface States Conduction in
(Bi0.53Sb0.47)2Te3 Topological Insulator
Jianshi Tang,*,† Li-Te Chang,† Xufeng Kou,† Koichi Murata,† Eun Sang Choi,‡ Murong Lang,†
Yabin Fan,† Ying Jiang,§ Mohammad Montazeri,† Wanjun Jiang,† Yong Wang,§ Liang He,*,†
and Kang L. Wang*,†
†
Device Research Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, United
States
‡
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Tallahassee, Florida 32310, United States
§
Center for Electron Microscopy and State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, Department of Materials Science and Engineering,
Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China
S Supporting Information
*
ABSTRACT: Strong spin−orbit interaction and time-reversal
symmetry in topological insulators enable the spin-momentum
locking for the helical surface states. To date, however, there
has been little report of direct electrical spin injection/
detection in topological insulator. In this Letter, we report the
electrical detection of spin-polarized surface states conduction
using a Co/Al2O3 ferromagnetic tunneling contact in which
the compound topological insulator (Bi0.53Sb0.47)2Te3 was used
to achieve low bulk carrier density. Resistance (voltage)
hysteresis with the amplitude up to about 10 Ω was observed
when sweeping the magnetic field to change the relative
orientation between the Co electrode magnetization and the spin polarization of surface states. The two resistance states were
reversible by changing the electric current direction, affirming the spin-momentum locking in the topological surface states.
Angle-dependent measurement was also performed to further confirm that the abrupt change in the voltage (resistance) was
associated with the magnetization switching of the Co electrode. The spin voltage amplitude was quantitatively analyzed to yield
an effective spin polarization of 1.02% for the surface states conduction in (Bi0.53Sb0.47)2Te3. Our results show a direct evidence of
spin polarization in the topological surface states conduction. It might open up great opportunities to explore energy-efficient
spintronic devices based on topological insulators.
KEYWORDS: Topological insulator, spin polarization, surface states, spin-momentum locking, spin detection
S
prohibited by the time-reversal symmetry.8,9 More importantly,
the spin-momentum locking naturally leads to a currentinduced spin polarization in surface states;21 the surface states
conduction is spin-polarized once an electric current is passed
through a TI film, and this spin polarization can be accordingly
reversed by simply flipping the electric current direction.22,23 As
a result, it has been proposed to use TI as a promising spin
injection source to inject spin-polarized carriers into nonmagnetic materials, such as metal and graphene.24−26
The presence of spin-polarized surface states has been mainly
examined using optical methods. For example, spin-resolved
ARPES has been widely used to resolve the helical spin texture
at different energy levels,14−16 and the spin texture is found to
be opposite for above and below the Dirac point.15 Another
approach is to use circularly polarized light to excite spin-
ince the discovery of two-dimensional (2D) and threedimensional (3D) topological insulators (TIs),1−5 they
have attracted extensive research interest for their exotic
physical properties that could lead to dissipationless transport
in the quantum spin Hall state.6−9 Recent studies have shown a
giant spin−orbit torque in TI originating from the strong spin−
orbit interaction,10,11 which enabled the current-induced
magnetization switching through spin-transfer torque with a
low current density. The unique feature of 3D TI, for instance,
is that it has both insulating bulk and gapless Dirac surface
states.8,9 Ternary TI compounds, such as (BixSb1−x)2Te3, have
been widely investigated for their tunability to achieve low bulk
carrier density and manifest topological surface states
conduction.12,13 The presence of surface states is supported
by extensive angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy
(ARPES) measurements and transport studies,14−20 such as
Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) and Aharonov Bohm (AB) quantum
oscillations. Because of the strong spin−orbital interaction in
TI, direct back scatterings from nonmagnetic impurities are
© XXXX American Chemical Society
Received: July 10, 2014
Revised: August 24, 2014
A
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Figure 1. Film property and device structure for spin detection in TI. (a) High-resolution cross-sectional TEM image of (Bi0.53Sb0.47)2Te3 thin film
grown on a GaAs substrate with an atomically clean interface. (b) Magnified picture showing the details of the van der Waals gaps. Each quintuple
layer with the van der Waals gap is well resolved, as labeled by the white dash lines. (c) AFM image of the Al2O3-capped (Bi0.53Sb0.47)2Te3 film,
showing a relatively smooth surface morphology. (d) Microscope image of the as-fabricated TI Hall-bar device with Co/Al2O3 ferromagnetic
tunneling contacts on the channel. (e) Temperature-dependent I−V curves measured from the Co/Al2O3 contact on the TI channel. The nonlinear
I−V characteristics with weak temperature dependence suggest tunneling transport through the 1.2 nm Al2O3.
polarized photocurrent in TI surface states.27−29 Left- and
right-circularly polarized light selectively interacts with opposite
spin polarizations with components that are either parallel or
antiparallel to the wave vector of the incident light.27 However,
there has been little report of direct electrical injection or
detection in TI. Very recently, the electrical detection of
charge-current-induced spin polarization was reported in
Bi2Se3, and the spin polarization was estimated to be 0.2 per
unit current based on a quantum transport model.30,31
Although Bi2Se3 has a large bulk band gap of about 0.3 eV, it
is known that there are excessive Se vacancies in Bi2Se3 that can
result in a degenerately high n-type doping density (n2D =
1013∼1014 cm−2), which places the Fermi level within the bulk
conduction band.32 The coexistence of topological surface
states and two-dimensional electron gas with a large tunable
Rashba spin splitting on the surface of Bi2Se3 would complicate
the spin texture.33 To circumvent this problem, we intentionally
chose the compound TI (BixSb1−x)2Te3 in this work and
carefully tuned the composition (x = 0.53) to achieve the
lowest bulk carrier density (n2D ∼1012 cm−2) with a clean spin
texture.12 The electrical detection of the spin-polarized
topological surface states conduction was carried out using
one ferromagnetic contact as the spin detector to probe the
spin polarization. In addition, a tunneling barrier was used to
enhance the spin detection efficiency.34 It should be pointed
out that standard spin injection/detection measurement setup
may not be feasible to study the spin transport in TI
(Supporting Information S1) because the spin diffusion length
in TI is expected to be extremely small because of the strong
spin−orbital interaction.22 Also, the typical ferromagnetic spin
injector is not needed here as the spin polarization in the
topological surface states conduction is inherently provided by
the spin-momentum locking.8,9
Device Structure and Characterizations. To start, eight
quintuple layers of (Bi0.53Sb0.47)2Te3 TI thin film were grown
on a high-resistivity GaAs (111)B substrate using molecular
beam epitaxy (MBE).12,35 The layer-by-layer growth was in situ
monitored by the reflection high-energy electron diffraction
(RHEED) pattern (see Supporting Information S2). Although
reducing the film thickness could diminish the bulk conduction
and hence enhance the surface states signal,30 the hybridization
between the top and bottom surface states would open a gap at
the Dirac point, which transforms massless Dirac Fermions to
massive Fermions and might also change the spin texture in
TI.36 Therefore, the thickness of eight quintuple layers in our
sample was intentionally chosen to minimize the bulk
conductance while avoiding the interaction between the two
topological surfaces. The Bi and Sb atomic ratio was fine-tuned
to reach the lowest bulk carrier density, where the Fermi level
lied within the bulk band gap.13 A 0.8 nm thick Al layer was in
situ deposited on top after the growth to cap the
(Bi0.53Sb0.47)2Te3 surface and to prevent any environment
doping and surface oxidation.37,38 After being taken out from
the chamber and exposed to air, the Al capping layer was
naturally oxidized into Al2O3 with a thickness of about 1.2 nm,
which served as the tunneling barrier for the ferromagnetic
contact. This method has been widely used to produce the
tunneling barrier for electrical spin injection and detection
studies in various materials.30,39,40 A high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) was used to investigate
the TI film quality. As shown in Figure 1a,b, the HRTEM crosssectional image demonstrated an abrupt and clean epitaxial
B
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Figure 2. Electrical detection of the spin-polarized surface states conduction in (Bi0.53Sb0.47)2Te3. (a) Schematic illustration of the device structure
with one ferromagnetic tunneling Co/Al2O3 contact for spin detection. The measurement setup with a 4-probe configuration and a lock-in technique
is also illustrated. (b) Schematic illustration of the helical spin texture of the surface states in TI: clockwise spin texture (left-handed chirality) above
the Dirac point while counterclockwise spin texture (right-handed chirality) below the Dirac point. (c,d) The measured voltage (resistance) at T =
1.9 K as the in-plane magnetic field is swept back and forth under dc bias of Idc = +2 μA and Idc = −2 μA, respectively. The parabolic background MR
was subtracted. The scale bar represents a corresponding resistance change of 2 Ω. The red and black arrows indicate the magnetic field sweeping
direction. The insets show the HRS and LRS, determined by the relative orientation between the Co electrode magnetization M and the spin
polarization s of surface states. The electron spin s is antiparallel to its magnetic moment ms because of the negative charge of electron.
effect (MOKE) measurement on a Co film, which was
deposited at the same time with the Co electrode (see
Supporting Information S6).
Detection of Spin-Polarized Surface States Conduction. Figure 2a shows the schematic device structure and
measurement setup for the electrical detection of spin-polarized
surface states conduction in (Bi0.53Sb0.47)2Te3. Here two outer
nonmagnetic contacts (Ti/Au) were used to pass electric
current (along the x-axis) through the TI channel, while one
ferromagnetic tunneling contact (Co/Al2O3) was used to detect
the spin polarization of the surface states conduction. A lock-in
technique was employed to increase the signal-to-noise ratio,
and a 4-probe configuration was also adopted to exclude the
contact resistance and any spurious signals from the contact.
The low-temperature transport measurements were performed
using a Quantum Design Physical Property Measurement
System (PPMS) connected with Keithley 6221 AC/DC current
source and lock-in amplifier SR830. An in-plane magnetic field
was applied along the easy axis (y-axis) of the Co electrode to
control its magnetization direction. Meanwhile, the spin
polarization direction of the surface states conduction was
determined by the electric current direction and the spinmomentum locking. It should be pointed out that the electron
spin s is antiparallel to its magnetic moment ms because of the
negative charge of electron.43 In our (Bi0.53Sb0.47)2Te3 film, the
Fermi level is above the Dirac point,13 so the spin texture of
surface states is expected to be clockwise (left-handed chirality)
interface of (Bi0.53Sb0.47)2Te3 on the GaAs substrate and each
quintuple layer with the van der Waals gap was well resolved.
The chemical composition was confirmed by the Bi, Sb, and Te
peaks in the energy-dispersive spectrum (EDS) collected from
the (Bi0.53Sb0.47)2Te3 film (see Supporting Information S3).
The atomic force microscope (AFM) image was also taken on
the (Bi0.53Sb0.47)2Te3 film and showed a relatively smooth
surface morphology in Figure 1c. The estimated root-meansquare (RMS) surface roughness was about 0.57 nm.
After the growth, the (Bi0.53Sb0.47)2Te3 film was patterned
into standard Hall bar structures with 10 nm/100 nm thick Ti/
Au nonmagnetic contacts and Co/Al2O3 ferromagnetic
contacts. The 40 nm thick Co contacts were defined by
electron beam lithography and electron beam evaporation and
another layer of 5 nm Al2O3 was also evaporated in situ to
prevent subsequent oxidation of the Co electrodes. The
microscope image of the final device for spin detection is
shown in Figure 1d. To verify the tunneling nature of the Co/
Al2O3 contact to the (Bi0.53Sb0.47)2Te3 channel, temperaturedependent I−V measurements were performed from 2 to 250
K, as shown in Figure 1e. The nonlinear I−V characteristics and
relatively weak temperature dependence clearly indicate
tunneling dominant transport through the 1.2 nm Al2O3
barrier,41 which is essential to enhance the spin detection
efficiency (see Supporting Information S5 for further discussion
on the temperature dependence).34,42 The ferromagnetism of
the Co electrode was also verified by the magneto-optic Kerr
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Figure 3. Angle-dependent measurements. (a) Schematic illustration of the magnetic field (black arrow) rotation in the y−z plane. (b,c) Voltage
hysteresis curves at different rotation angles under dc bias of Idc = +2 μA and Idc = −2 μA, respectively. The red and black arrows indicate the
magnetic field sweeping direction. The parabolic MR background was subtracted in all the curves. The curves are intentionally offset for clarity, and
the scale bar represents a corresponding resistance change of 20 Ω. The blue dash lines mark the switching fields increasing with rotation angle. (d)
The extracted switching fields (data points) at different rotation angles is well fitted by the Hc/cos(θ) relation (blue line), indicating only the
magnetic field component along the y-axis determines the magnetization switching of the Co electrode. The error bars are calculated from positive
and negative switching fields in multiple measurements.
from the previous spin-resolved ARPES measurements as
illustrated in Figure 2b,14−16 that is, the spin polarization s is
pointing along −y direction for momentum (kx > 0, ky = 0),
while along +y direction for momentum (kx < 0, ky = 0). Figure
2c shows the measured hysteresis of the measured voltage at T
= 1.9 K as the in-plane magnetic field was swept back and forth
under a constant ac current of Iac = 1 μA plus a dc bias of Idc =
+2 μA. For clarity, the trivial parabolic magnetoresistance (MR)
background, originating from the (Bi0.53Sb0.47)2Te3 channel
between the two voltage probes, was subtracted (see
Supporting Information S7 for the raw data). The measured
voltage (resistance) depends on the relative orientation
between the surface states spin polarization and the Co
electrode magnetization: a low resistance state (LRS) when the
electron magnetic moment ms was parallel to the Co
magnetization M (hence s was antiparallel to M), and a high
resistance state (HRS) when ms was antiparallel to M (hence s
was parallel to M). Such configuration is analogous to that in a
typical magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ), in which the junction
resistance is determined by the relative magnetization
orientation between the two ferromagnetic layers. The abrupt
change in the voltage (resistance) corresponded to the
magnetization switching of the Co electrode (with a width of
about 400 nm) at the coercive field of about Hc ∼ 300 Oe,
which was estimated from the anisotropic magnetoresistance
(AMR) measurement (see Supporting Information S8). The
inset shows the schematic illustration of the relative orientation
between the surface states spin polarization and the Co
electrode magnetization (for Idc = +2 μA): HRS for positive
magnetic field (M // −ms // s) while LRS for negative
magnetic field (M // ms // −s). It is noted that the HRS and
LRS in our voltage hysteresis is shown opposite from that
observed in Bi2Se3;30 however, the interpreted spin texture in
this way is consistent with the reported spin-resolved APRES
data as illustrated in Figure 2b.14−16 Furthermore, if the electric
current direction was flipped to Idc = −2 μA, then the LRS and
HRS were also reversed,30 as shown in Figure 2d: LRS for
positive magnetic field (M // ms // −s) while HRS for negative
magnetic field (M // −ms // s). More than 10 (Bi0.53Sb0.47)2Te3
devices have been measured, and the current-reversible voltage
hysteresis was observed in multiple samples. This result directly
demonstrates the spin-momentum locking feature for the
surface states conduction in TI. It should be pointed out that
this current-reversible hysteresis cannot originate from the Co
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Figure 4. Temperature dependence of the spin signal. (a) Temperature-dependent voltage hysteresis curves under dc bias of Idc = −2 μA. The red
and black arrows indicate the magnetic field sweeping direction. The parabolic MR background was subtracted in all the curves. The curves are
intentionally offset for clarity, and the scale bar represents a corresponding resistance change of 20 Ω. (b) Extracted spin voltage signal amplitude at
different temperatures up to 10 K. In general, the signal amplitude decreases as the temperature increases, indicating the reduction of effective spin
polarization of the total current. The error bars are calculated from forward and backward sweeps of the magnetic field in multiple measurements.
The temperature-dependent phase coherence length from the HLN fitting of the low-field magneto-conductivity is also plotted, showing similar
temperature dependence.
of Idc = −2 μA. We can further define the spin voltage
amplitude as ΔV = VAP − VP = Iac(RAP − RP), in which VAP
(RAP) and VP (RP) represent the measured voltage (resistance)
in the HRS and LRS, respectively. The temperature-dependent
spin voltage amplitude is plotted in Figure 4b. Overall, the spin
signal amplitude decreases as the temperature increases,30
suggesting that the effective spin polarization of the total
current decreases. This could be attributed to the fact that with
the temperature increasing: (1) the bulk conduction increases
due to thermally activated bulk dopants, so that the relative
contribution from the spin-polarized surface states conduction
decreases;48 (2) inelastic scatterings such as phonon scatterings
increase so that the spin polarization of surface states
conduction also decreases. To explain the temperature
dependence of the surface states conduction more clearly,
standard magneto-transport measurements were performed on
the Hall bar structure patterned on the same (Bi0.53Sb0.47)2Te3
film (see Figure 1d for the device structure and dimension). In
the Hall measurements, the longitudinal resistance (Rxx) and
transverse resistance (Rxy) were measured when sweeping the
out-of-plane magnetic field. The low-field magneto-conductivity
was fitted by the standard Hikami−Larkin−Nagaoka (HLN)
theory in the temperature range between 1.9 and 10 K (see
Supporting Information S10).37,49,50 The extracted phase
coherence length is then plotted in Figure 4b, which shows a
similar temperature dependence as the measured spin voltage
amplitude. The phase coherence length decreased with
increasing temperature, indicating that the surface states
conduction diminished.
To quantitatively estimate the spin polarization of the surface
state conduction in the (Bi0.53Sb0.47)2Te3, we established a
model similar to that in standard spin injection and detection in
semiconductors (see Supporting Information S1 and S11). The
measured voltage difference ΔV = VAP − VP can be interpreted
to probe the electrochemical potential (quasi Fermi level)
difference between the majority and minority spin directions51
contact itself due to effects including AMR, tunneling
anisotropic magnetoresistance (TAMR) and anomalous Hall
effect (AHE).30,44−46 To further rule out those effects, control
experiments have been carried out on another sample without
the Al2O3 layer, in which no hysteresis was observed (see
Supporting Information S8 and S9).
Angle-Dependent Measurements. To further verify that
the hysteresis is closely correlated with the magnetization
switching of the Co electrode, the magnetic field was rotated in
the y−z plane toward the out-of-plane direction. As illustrated
in Figure 3a, there is an angle θ between the applied magnetic
field (in the y−z plane) and the easy y-axis of the Co electrode.
Figure 3b,c shows the voltage hysteresis curves at different
rotation angles θ under dc bias of Idc = +2 μA and Idc = −2 μA,
respectively. Again the trivial parabolic MR background was
subtracted in all the curves for clarity. The switching field Hsw
was found to increase with the rotation angle for both bias
conditions, and the hysteresis completely vanished as the
rotation angle approached θ = 90°. Figure 3d further plots the
switching field Hsw as a function of the rotation angle θ, which
can be well fitted with the Hc/cos(θ) relation. This result
suggests that the abrupt change in the voltage (resistance)
occurred when the in-plane component (along the easy y-axis)
of the applied magnetic field reached the coercive field of the
Co electrode, that is, the magnetization switching of the Co
electrode. Therefore, the abrupt switching between the LRS
and the HRS in the voltage (resistance) hysteresis was indeed
correlated with the change in the relative orientation between
the surface states spin polarization and the Co electrode
magnetization. It should be pointed out that the out-of-plane
component of the applied magnetic field (less than 1 kOe) was
much smaller than the Co saturation field along the hard z-axis
(typically tens of kOe), hence it did not change the Co
magnetization orientation but only contributed to the parabolic
MR background. In addition, the small out-of-plane magnetic
field did not affect the surface states because that the induced
gap opening in the surface states was negligible.47
Analysis of the Spin Polarization. Furthermore, temperature-dependent voltage hysteretic data were measured from
1.9 to 10 K, and the results are shown in Figure 4a for the bias
ΔV = α
E
γPCo
Δμ
e
(1)
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quality (e.g., surface morphology) could also help enhance the
observed spin signal.
To sum up, we have successfully demonstrated the electrical
detection of spin-polarized surface states conduction in the
(Bi0.53Sb0.47)2Te3 TI film using a Co/Al2O3 ferromagnetic
tunneling contact. By changing the directions of both the
magnetic field and the electric current, reversible voltage
(resistance) hysteresis was observed up to 10 K, in which the
HRS and LRS were obtained from the relative orientation
between the Co magnetization and the spin polarization of
topological surface states. It was further verified by angledependent measurements that the abrupt change in the voltage
(resistance) indeed corresponded to the magnetization switching of the Co electrode. These transport results affirmed the
spin-momentum locking feature of the topological surface
states enabled by the strong spin−orbit interaction and the
time-reversal symmetry in TI. The spin voltage amplitude was
quantitatively analyzed to yield an effective spin polarization of
about 1.02% for the surface states conduction in
(Bi0.53Sb0.47)2Te3. The measured low spin polarization could
be attributed to the short mean-free path and phase coherence
length in TI and the terrace-like TI surface morphology that
limits the spin detection efficiency. From our analysis, it is
suggested that this value can be further enhanced by tuning the
Fermi level and increasing the surface states conduction ratio.
Our findings demonstrated an exotic feature of spin-polarized
surface states in TI from electrical transport measurements.
The present results may pave the road to explore innovative
energy-efficient spintronic devices based on TIs.
where α = σSS/σtotal is the surface conductance ratio, γ is the
spin detection efficiency through the Co/Al2O3 tunneling
contact, PCo = (nCo↑ − nCo↓)/(nCo↑ + nCo↓) is the spin
polarization of the Co electrode with nCo↑(nCo↓) being the
electron density with the majority (minority) spin direction,
Δμ = μ↑ − μ↓ is the splitting in the spin-dependent
electrochemical potential between the majority and minority
spin directions, which can be further derived as
nSS ↑ − nSS ↓
Δμ =
N (E F )
⎛ nSS ↑ − nSS ↓ ⎞⎛ nSS ↑ + nSS ↓ ⎞
⎟⎟
⎟⎟⎜⎜
= ⎜⎜
⎝ nSS ↑ + nSS ↓ ⎠⎝ N (E F) ⎠
⎛ n
⎞
= PSS⎜⎜ total ⎟⎟
⎝ N (E F ) ⎠
(2)
where PSS = (nSS↑ − nSS↓)/(nSS↑ + nSS↓) is the effective spin
polarization of the surface states conduction, N(EF) is the
density of states at the Fermi level. For the 2D Dirac surface
states with a linear E−k relation, the density of states is
proportional to the energy as N(E) = |E|/[π(ℏvF)2] in which ℏ
is the reduced Planck’s constant and vF is the Fermi velocity.52
Then by integration in the energy space
ntotal =
∫0
EF
N (E)dE =
1
E F N (E F )
2
(3)
we can rewrite the spin voltage amplitude as
ΔV = α
γPCoE F
PSS
2e
■
(4)
ASSOCIATED CONTENT
S Supporting Information
*
From our measurement results shown in Figure 4b, ΔV = (10.4
± 0.8) μV at T = 1.9 K. Using the values of α = σSS/σtotal = 53%,
EF = 83 meV estimated from the SdH oscillations in the
longitudinal resistance Rxx (see Supporting Information S4),
and PCo = 42%,53 γ = 11% for the Co/Al2O3 tunnel junction
from literature,42 we can then calculate the effective spin
polarization of the surface states conduction in
(Bi0.53Sb0.47)2Te3 to be PSS = (1.02 ± 0.08)%. This is smaller
than the theoretical predication of about 50% spin polarization
for the 3D TI surface states from first-principle calculations.21
Such deviation can be probably attributed to that the dimension
of the top surface in our device (in micron scale) is much larger
than the typical mean-free path and phase coherence length
(tens to hundreds nanometers, see Supporting Information
S10),17,18,37 hence the carrier transport through the surface
states suffers from considerable scatterings. Another possible
reason could be the overestimation of the spin detection
efficiency in the nonideal Co/Al2O3 tunneling contact,
considering that the (Bi0.53Sb0.47)2Te3 surface has a terracelike morphology. The spin injection/detection process is
known to be very sensitive to the surface roughness, which
would induce interface traps or local magnetostatic fields that
could dramatically affect the spin detection process.54 In
addition, the potential contribution from the bulk states
(especially the Rashba spin-splitting states with an opposite
spin texture to the topological surface states) could also lower
the observed spin polarization. To further enhance the spin
signal and spin polarization in the future, one effective approach
according to eq 4 is to tune the Fermi energy and to enhance
the surface conduction ratio, which can be achieved through
doping and gate control.12,35 Besides, improving the TI film
Spin detection in conventional semiconductors and topological
insulator, RHEED pattern and oscillation, EDS spectrum of the
(Bi0.53Sb0.47)2Te3 film, low-temperature transport measurements, temperature-dependent resistance of the Co/Al2O3
contact, MOKE signal of Co film, raw data of the measured
4-probe resistance, AMR measurement on the Co contact,
control experiment without the Al2O3 layer, HLN fitting of the
phase coherence length in (Bi0.53Sb0.47)2Te3, discussion on the
quantum transport model, and Hall data of the
(Bi0.53Sb0.47)2Te3 film. This material is available free of charge
via the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org.
■
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Authors
*E-mail: (J.T.) tjianshi@ucla.edu.
*E-mail: (L.H.) liang.heliang@gmail.com.
*E-mail: (K.L.W.) wang@seas.ucla.edu.
Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors acknowledge insightful discussions from the
Device Research Laboratory at UCLA. The authors also
acknowledge the support from Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA) with Grants N66001-12-1-4034 and
N66001-11-1-4105, and the Function Accelerated nanoMaterial
Engineering (FAME) center. A portion of this work was
performed at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory,
which is supported by NSF Cooperative Agreement No. DMR1157490, by the State of Florida, and by the Department of
■
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■
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