Phonons in the 1/f noise of topological insulators

Abstract

In topological insulators, such as (Bi,Sb)2Te3 and BiSbTeSe1.6, the 1/f noise intensity features intriguing peaks, which develop at some specific temperatures. In search for their microscopic origin, we compared this noise structure with either phonon density of states or Raman spectrum of each topological insulator (TI), respectively. In (Bi,Sb)2Te3, the comparison revealed that the noise peaks track the van Hove singularities in the phonon density of states. The most intense noise peak observed in (Bi,Sb)2Te3 at 50 K is attributed to the thermal motion of the Bi atoms. Other less intense noise peaks are assigned to either a single phonon mode or multi-phonon combinations. We found that thermal vibrations of Bi and Te2 atoms in different symmetry directions are involved in most of the phonon combinations, which stand for the signature of the lattice anharmonicity in noise. The noise increase observed in (Bi,Sb)2Te3 and BiSbTeSe1.6 above a specific temperature threshold is attributed to the strengthening of the carrier–phonon coupling induced by anharmonicity. In the case of BiSbTeSe1.6, we show that all noise singularities are mirrored in the Raman spectrum of a structurally close TI (BiSbTeSe2) in the whole temperature range. This indicates that although transport can be at the surface or in the bulk or both of them, the carrier–phonon interaction is the only source of 1/f fluctuations in TIs. Inherently, these results imply that the microscopic origin of 1/f noise in solid is in the perpetual thermal motion of the atoms.