Topological insulator nanostructures

Topological insulators provide a gateway to investigate fundamental quantum behaviours of exotic quasi-particles as well as the promise to revolutionize modern technology. This is due to their unique surface states that are robust against time reversal perturbation and exhibit unique spin-momentum locking property. Enhancing the surface state signal in proportion to the bulk of the material is critical to study the surface states and for future electronics applications. This can be achieved by making topological insulators into nanostructures, which have large surface to volume ratios thus maximizing the topological surface state signal. This article reviews the recent progress made in topological insulator nanostructures including chemical and physical synthesis techniques to make topological insulator nanostructures, notable transport experiments, and current efforts to protect the surface states from degradation. Lastly, future transport studies using topological insulator nanostructures and various chemical methods to tune their materials properties for diverse electronic applications are suggested. (C) 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim