The potential to control the type of surface conductivity in the correlated topological insulator SmB was demonstrated for the first time. The transition to -type surface conductivity with the Hall effect sign inversion at helium temperatures was achieved by cleaning the SmB faces formed by the (110) surfaces with the help of argon ion sputtering with an average energy of 500 eV. The crossover in the surface conductivity type with a dominant contribution from surface holes (having mobility up to 60 cmVs at 2 K) is associated with both the removal of carbon from the surface of SmB and its passivation by oxygen, and with the generation of defects in the near-surface layer initiated by ion bombardment. The discovered effect opens up possibilities for modifying the parameters of surface electron transport in the correlated topological insulator SmB by means of the controlled injection of defects or due to the field effect.
Glushkov et al. (Wed,) studied this question.