Induced electronic anisotropy in bismuth thin films
Abstract
We use magneto-resistance measurements to investigate the effect of texturing in polycrystalline bismuth thin films. Electrical current in bismuth films with texturing such that all grains are oriented with the trigonal axis normal to the film plane is found to flow in an isotropic manner. By contrast, bismuth films with no texture such that not all grains have the same crystallographic orientation exhibit anisotropic current flow, giving rise to preferential current flow pathways in each grain depending on its orientation. Extraction of the mobility and the phase coherence length in both types of films indicates that carrier scattering is not responsible for the observed anisotropic conduction. Evidence from control experiments on antimony thin films suggests that the anisotropy is a result of bismuth's large electron effective mass anisotropy.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Aug 11, 2014
- Source ID
- 10.1063/1.4893140
Entities
People
- Albert D. Liao
- Cyril Opeil
- Ferhat Katmis
- Jagadeesh Moodera
- Mengliang Yao
- Mildred S. Dresselhaus
- Mingda Li
- Shuang Tang
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Boston College
- Division of Materials Research
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Office of Naval Research