Granularity Controlled Non-Saturating Linear Magneto-resistance in Topological Insulator Bi2Te3 Films

Abstract: We report on the magneto-transport properties of chemical vapor deposition grown films of interconnected Bi2Te3 nanoplates. Similar to many other topological insulator (TI) materials, these granular Bi2Te3 films exhibit a linear magneto-resistance (LMR) effect which has received much recent attention. Studying samples with different degree of granularity, we find a universal correlation between the magnitude of the LMR and the average mobility (<\mu>) of the films over nearly two orders of magnitude change of <\mu>. The granularity controlled LMR effect here is attributed to the mobility fluctuation induced classical LMR according to the Parish-Littlewood theory. These findings have implications to both the fundamental understanding and magneto-resistive device applications of TI and small bandgap semiconductor materials.