Regarding question of how thick the conducting region is in a topological insulator.
I still don't think it's valid to think of a thickness since this conduction would be on the edge -- I suppose mathematically, infinitesimally small.
However, Moore (author of paper I reviewed) mentions in a news article that (second generation) topological insulators are expected to have metallic layer a few nanometers thick.
This would be about 10 atoms thick, so compared to a chunk of material, that's still pretty small.
My interest, again, would go to how this was measured.
Interesting quote from that news article about topology: until now been mostly beyond any hope of practical application.
Regarding question of how thick the conducting region is in a topological insulator.
ReplyDeleteI still don't think it's valid to think of a thickness since this conduction would be on the edge -- I suppose mathematically, infinitesimally small.
However, Moore (author of paper I reviewed) mentions in a news article that (second generation) topological insulators are expected to have metallic layer a few nanometers thick.
This would be about 10 atoms thick, so compared to a chunk of material, that's still pretty small.
My interest, again, would go to how this was measured.
Interesting quote from that news article about topology: until now been mostly beyond any hope of practical application.