Weak antilocalization in (111) thin films of a topological crystalline insulator SnTe

We grew single-crystal thin films of a topological crystalline insulator (TCI) SnTe with a smooth surface at the atomic scale by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). In the magnetoresistance (MR) measurement, we observed both positive and negative components near zero magnetic field at lowest temperatures of 2 - 3 K, while we observed only a negative MR at elevated temperatures of 6 - 10 K. The positive MR is attributed to the weak antilocalization (WAL) in the transport through the topological surface state (SS), demonstrating $π$ berry phase which is essential to the topological SS, while the negative MR to the weak localization (WL) in the transport through the bulk state (two-dimensional bulk subbbands). The absolute value of the prefactor $α$ deduced from the fitting of the observed positive MR to the Hikami-Larkin-Nagaoka equation was much smaller than expected from the number of transport channel of the SS, suggesting the coupling of the SS to the bulk state.

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