Large bulk resistivity and surface quantum oscillations in the topological insulator Bi2Te2Se

Topological insulators are predicted to present novel surface transport phenomena, but their experimental studies have been hindered by a metallic bulk conduction that overwhelms the surface transport. We show that a new topological insulator, Bi2Te2Se, presents a high resistivity exceeding 1 Ohm-cm and a variable-range hopping behavior, and yet presents Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations coming from the surface Dirac fermions. Furthermore, we have been able to clarify both the bulk and surface transport channels, establishing a comprehensive understanding of the transport in this material. Our results demonstrate that Bi2Te2Se is the best material to date for studying the surface quantum transport in a topological insulator.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Management and Organization in the work of Michel Houellebecq

Research in management and organization may only gain by being inspired from arts, culture and humanities in order to rethink practices but also to nourish its own perspectives. Life in organizations is artificially separate from ordinary life: all of mundane objects are thus conducive to astonishment, inspiration, and even problematization. The unplugged subsection “voices” gives the opportunity to academics and non-academics to deliver an interpretation about an object from the cultural or artistic world. Interpreted objects are or not directly related to organizational life, resonate or not with the moment, but share some intriguing features. These interpretations suggest a patchwork of variations on the same object

Transport and magnetic properties of GdBaCo_{2}O_{5+x} single crystals: A cobalt oxide with square-lattice CoO_2 planes over a wide range of electron and hole doping

Single crystals of the layered perovskite GdBaCo_{2}O_{5+x} (GBCO) have been grown by the floating-zone method, and their transport, magnetic, and structural properties have been studied in detail over a wide range of oxygen contents. The obtained data are used to establish a rich phase diagram centered at the "parent'' compound GdBaCo_{2}O_{5.5} -- an insulator with Co ions in the 3+ state. An attractive feature of GBCO is that it allows a precise and continuous doping of CoO_{2} planes with either electrons or holes, spanning a wide range from the charge-ordered insulator at 50% electron doping (x=0) to the undoped band insulator (x=0.5), and further towards the heavily hole-doped metallic state. This continuous doping is clearly manifested in the behavior of thermoelectric power which exhibits a spectacular divergence with approaching x=0.5, where it reaches large absolute values and abruptly changes its sign. At low temperatures, the homogeneous distribution of doped carriers in GBCO becomes unstable, and both the magnetic and transport properties point to an intriguing nanoscopic phase separation. We also find that throughout the composition range the magnetic behavior in GBCO is governed by a delicate balance between ferromagnetic (FM) and antiferromagnetic (AF) interactions, which can be easily affected by temperature, doping, or magnetic field, bringing about FM-AF transitions and a giant magnetoresistance (MR) phenomenon. An exceptionally strong uniaxial anisotropy of the Co spins, which dramatically simplifies the possible spin arrangements, together with the possibility of continuous ambipolar doping turn GBCO into a model system for studying the competing magnetic interactions, nanoscopic phase separation and accompanying magnetoresistance phenomena.Comment: 31 pages, 32 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Landau level spectroscopy of surface states in the topological insulator Bi0.91_{0.91}Sb0.09_{0.09} via magneto-optics

We have performed broad-band zero-field and magneto-infrared spectroscopy of the three dimensional topological insulator Bi$_{0.91}$Sb$_{0.09}$. The zero-field results allow us to measure the value of the direct band gap between the conducting $L_a$ and valence $L_s$ bands. Under applied field in the Faraday geometry (\emph{k} $||$ \emph{H} $||$ C1), we measured the presence of a multitude of Landau level (LL) transitions, all with frequency dependence $\omega \propto \sqrt{H}$. We discuss the ramification of this observation for the surface and bulk properties of topological insulators.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, March Meeting 2011 Abstract: J35.0000

Solid Matrix Priming Treatment with O2 Enhanced Quality of Leek Seed Lots

This study aims to determine the effect of solid matrix priming (SMP) treatment with an air composition of O2, N2, air, vacuum on four leek (Allium ampeloprasum L.) seed lots of various ages, in terms of enhancing germination, mean germination time, electrical conductivity of solute leakage and catalase activity. Untreated seeds were used as control. Solid matrix priming at a seed: vermiculite: water ratio of 2.5:1.25:3.75 (w/w/w) was applied at 20 °C for 24 hours in the dark. Solid matrix priming with O2 was found to give the highest germination, lowest mean germination time, lowest electrical conductivity (reduced solute leakage) and the highest catalase activity among all treatments and lots. SMP treatment with air provided positive response, while N2 and vacuum treatments were found to be less effective. The advantages of solid matrix priming were more pronounced in lower quality lot than in the higher quality ones. The results indicated that oxygen enrichment in SMP may enhance leek seed quality

Band structure engineering in (Bi1-xSbx)2Te3 ternary topological insulators

Three-dimensional (3D) topological insulators (TI) are novel quantum materials with insulating bulk and topologically protected metallic surfaces with Dirac-like band structure. The spin-helical Dirac surface states are expected to host exotic topological quantum effects and find applications in spintronics and quantum computation. The experimental realization of these ideas requires fabrication of versatile devices based on bulk-insulating TIs with tunable surface states. The main challenge facing the current TI materials exemplified by Bi2Se3 and Bi2Te3 is the significant bulk conduction, which remains unsolved despite extensive efforts involving nanostructuring, chemical doping and electrical gating. Here we report a novel approach for engineering the band structure of TIs by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth of (Bi1-xSbx)2Te3 ternary compounds. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and transport measurements show that the topological surface states exist over the entire composition range of (Bi1-xSbx)2Te3 (x = 0 to 1), indicating the robustness of bulk Z2 topology. Most remarkably, the systematic band engineering leads to ideal TIs with truly insulating bulk and tunable surface state across the Dirac point that behave like one quarter of graphene. This work demonstrates a new route to achieving intrinsic quantum transport of the topological surface states and designing conceptually new TI devices with well-established semiconductor technology.Comment: Minor changes in title, text and figures. Supplementary information adde

Topological crystalline insulator states in Pb(1-x)Sn(x)Se

Topological insulators are a novel class of quantum materials in which time-reversal symmetry, relativistic (spin-orbit) effects and an inverted band structure result in electronic metallic states on the surfaces of bulk crystals. These helical states exhibit a Dirac-like energy dispersion across the bulk bandgap, and they are topologically protected. Recent theoretical proposals have suggested the existence of topological crystalline insulators, a novel class of topological insulators in which crystalline symmetry replaces the role of time-reversal symmetry in topological protection [1,2]. In this study, we show that the narrow-gap semiconductor Pb(1-x)Sn(x)Se is a topological crystalline insulator for x=0.23. Temperature-dependent magnetotransport measurements and angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy demonstrate that the material undergoes a temperature-driven topological phase transition from a trivial insulator to a topological crystalline insulator. These experimental findings add a new class to the family of topological insulators. We expect these results to be the beginning of both a considerable body of additional research on topological crystalline insulators as well as detailed studies of topological phase transitions.Comment: v2: published revised manuscript (6 pages, 3 figures) and supplementary information (5 pages, 8 figures