Two-dimensional electronic transport on the surface of three-dimensional topological insulators

We present a theoretical approach to describe the two-dimensional (2D) transport properties of the surfaces of three-dimensional topological insulators (3DTIs) including disorder and phonon scattering effects. The method that we present is able to take into account the effects of the strong disorder-induced carrier density inhomogeneities that characterize the ground state of the surfaces of 3DTIs, especially at low doping, as recently shown experimentally. Due to the inhomogeneous nature of the carrier density landscape, standard theoretical techniques based on ensemble averaging over disorder assuming a spatially uniform average carrier density are inadequate. Moreover the presence of strong spatial potential and density fluctuations greatly enhances the effect of thermally activated processes on the transport properties. The theory presented is able to take into account all the effects due to the disorder-induced inhomogeneities, momentum scattering by disorder, and the effect of electron-phonon scattering processes. As a result the developed theory is able to accurately describe the transport properties of the surfaces of 3DTIs both at zero and finite temperature. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.86.235443