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We present evidence for the existence and control of bulk-surface coupling in Bi2Te2Se nanoribbons. Our magnetoresistance measurements reveal that the number of coherent channels contributing to quantum interference in the nanoribbons changes abruptly when the film thickness exceeds the bulk phase relaxation length. We interpret this observation as an evidence for bulk-mediated coupling between metallic states located on opposite surfaces. This hypothesis is supported by additional magnetoresistance measurements conducted under a set of gate voltages and in a parallel magnetic field, the latter of which alters the intersurface coupling in a controllable way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We demonstrate that the charge-spin conversion efficiency of topological insulators (TI) can be experimentally determined by injecting spin-polarized tunneling electrons into a TI. Through a comparative study between bismuth selenide and bismuth antimony telluride, we verified the topological-surface-state origin of the observed giant spin signals. By injecting energetic electrons into bismuth selenide, we further studied the energy dependence of the effective spin polarization at the TI surface. The experimentally verified large spin polarization, as well as our calculations, provides new insights into optimizing TI materials for near room-temperature spintronic applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by recent nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments, we present a microscopic sp³ tight-binding model calculation of the NMR shifts in bulk Bi2Se3 and Bi2Te3. We compute the contact, dipolar, orbital and core polarization contributions to the carrier-density-dependent part of the NMR shifts in 209Bi, 125Te, and 77Se. The spin-orbit coupling and the layered crystal structure result in a contact Knight shift with strong uniaxial anisotropy. Likewise, because of spin-orbit coupling, dipolar interactions make a significant contribution to the isotropic part of the NMR shift. The contact interaction dominates the isotropic Knight shift in 209Bi NMR, even though the electronic states at the Fermi level have a rather weak s-orbital character. In contrast, the contribution from the contact hyperfine interaction to the NMR shift of 77Se and 125Te is weak compared to the dipolar and orbital shifts therein. In all cases, the orbital shift is at least comparable to the contact and dipolar shifts, while the shift due to core polarization is subdominant (except for Te nuclei located at the inversion centers). By artificially varying the strength of spin-orbit coupling, we evaluate the evolution of the NMR shift across a band inversion but find no clear signature of the topological transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intraband and interband contributions to the current-driven spin-orbit torque in magnetic materials lacking inversion symmetry are theoretically studied using the Kuboformula. In addition to the current-driven fieldlike torque TFL=τFLm×uso (uso being a unit vector determined by the symmetry of the spin-orbit coupling), we explore the intrinsic contribution arising from impurity-independent interband transitions and producing an anti-damping-like torque of the form TDL=τDLm×(uso×m). Analytical expressions are obtained in the model case of a magnetic Rashba two-dimensional electron gas, while numerical calculations have been performed on a dilute magnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As modeled by the Kohn-Luttinger Hamiltonian exchange coupled to the Mn moments. Parametric dependencies of the different torque components and similarities to the analytical results of the Rashba two-dimensional electron gas in the weak disorder limit are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Topological insulators constitute a new class of materials with an energy gap in the bulk and peculiar metallic states on the surface. We report on new features resulting from the bulk electronic structure, based on a comprehensive nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) study of 77Se on Bi2Se3 and Cu0.15Bi2Se3 single crystals. First, we find two resonance lines and show that they originate from the two inequivalent Se lattice sites. Second, we observe unusual field-independent linewidths and attribute them to an unexpectedly strong internuclear coupling mediated by bulk electrons. In order to support this interpretation, we present a model calculation of the indirect internuclear coupling and show that the Bloembergen-Rowland coupling is much stronger than the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida coupling. Our results call for a revision of earlier NMR studies and add information concerning the bulk electronic properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]