Abstract
Bismuth chalcogenides are the most studied 3D topological insulators. As a rule, at low temperatures, thin films of these materials demonstrate positive magnetoresistance due to weak antilocalization. Weak antilocalization should lead to resistivity decrease at low temperatures; in experiments, however, resistivity grows as temperature decreases. From transport measurements for several thin films (with various carrier density, thickness, and carrier mobility), and by using a purely phenomenological approach, with no microscopic theory, we show that the low-temperature growth of the resistivity is accompanied by growth of the Hall coefficient, in agreement with the diffusive electron-electron interaction correction mechanism. Our data reasonably explain the low-temperature resistivity upturn.
- Received 7 July 2016
- Revised 14 October 2016
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.94.235401
©2016 American Physical Society