Anomalous Magneto-Transport Properties of Epitaxial Single-Crystal Bi Films on Si（111）

Anomalous transport properties of 40-nm-thick single-crystal Bi（111） films grown on Si（111）-7 × 7 substrates is investigated. The magnetoresistance （MR） of the films in perpendicular magnetic field shows a regular positive behavior in the temperature range 2–300K, the MR in parallel field （B｜｜） displays a series of interesting features. Specifically, we observe a change of the MR （B｜｜） behavior from positive to negative when the temperature is below 10K. In the range 10–170 K, the MR （B｜｜） is negative in the investigated field of 9T. When T 〉 170 K, a positive MR appears in the high field regime. The low temperature MR（B｜｜） behavior in the parallel field can be understood by the competition between weak localization and weak anti-localization （WAL）. Furthermore, our results suggest that the WAL is dominated by the interface carriers.     

Origin of the metallic to insulating transition of an epitaxial Bi(111) film grown on Si(111)

Transport characteristics of single crystal bismuth films on Si(111)-7×7 are found to be metallic or insulating at temperatures below or above T_C, respectively. The transition temperature T_C decreases as the film thickness increases. By combining thickness dependence of the films resistivity, we find the insulating behaviour results from the states inside film, while the metallic behaviour originates from the interface states. We show that quantum size effect in a Bi film, such as the semimetal-to-semiconductor transition, is only observable at a temperature higher than T_C.