English

Aharonov-Bohm oscillations caused by non-topological surface states in Dirac nanowires

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2017-03-10 v2

Abstract

One intriguing fingerprint of surface states in topological insulators is the Aharonov-Bohm effect in magnetoconductivity of nanowires. We show that surface states in nanowires of Dirac materials (bismuth, bismuth antimony, and lead tin chalcogenides) being in non-topological phase, exhibit the same effect as amendment to magnetoconductivity of the bulk states. We consider a simple model of a cylindrical nanowire, which is described by the 3D Dirac equation with a general TT-invariant boundary condition. The boundary condition is determined by a single phenomenological parameter whose sign defines topological-like and non-topological surface states. The non-topological surface states emerge outside the gap. In longitudinal magnetic field BB they lead to Aharonov-Bohm amendment for the density of states and correspondingly for conductivity of the nanowire. The phase of these magnetooscillations increases with BB from π\pi to 2π2\pi.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1509.07532,
  title  = {Aharonov-Bohm oscillations caused by non-topological surface states in Dirac nanowires},
  author = {V. V. Enaldiev and V. A. Volkov},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1509.07532},
  year   = {2017}
}