We investigated the effect of magnetic doping on magnetic and transport properties of Bi2Te3thin films. CrxBi2−xTe3 thin films with x = 0.03, 0.14, and 0.29 were grown epitaxially on mica substrate with low surface roughness (∼0.4 nm). It is found that Cr is an electron acceptor in Bi2Te3 and increases the magnetization of CrxBi2−xTe3. When x = 0.14 and 0.29,ferromagnetism appears in CrxBi2−xTe3 thin films, where anomalous Hall effect and weak localization of magnetoconductance were observed. The Curie temperature, coercivity, and remnant Hall resistance of thin films increase with increasing Cr concentration. The Arrott-Noakes plot demonstrates that the critical mechanism of the ferromagnetism can be described better with 3D-Heisenberg model than with mean field model. Our work may benefit for the practical applications of magnetic topological insulators in spintronics and magnetoelectric devices.

Anomalous Hall effect (AHE) was recently discovered in magnetic element-doped topological insulators (TIs), which promises low power consumption and high efficiency spintronics and electronics. This discovery broadens the family of Hall sensors. In this paper, AHE sensors based on Cr-doped Bi2Te3 topological insulator thin films are studied with two thicknesses (15 and 65 nm). It is found, in both cases, that ultrahigh Hall sensitivity can be obtained in Cr-doped Bi2Te3. Hall sensitivity reaches 1666 Ω/T in the sensor with the 15 nm TI thin film, which is higher than that of the conventional semiconductor HE sensor. The AHE of 65 nm sensors is even stronger, which causes the sensitivity increasing to 2620 Ω/T. Furthermore, after comparing Cr-doped Bi2Te3 with the previously studied Mn-doped Bi2Te3 TI Hall sensor, the sensitivity of the present AHE sensor shows about 60 times higher in 65 nm sensors. The implementation of AHE sensors based on a magnetic-doped TI thin film indicates that the TIs are good candidates for ultrasensitive AHE sensors. KeywordsAnomalous Hall effect sensor, topological insulators, thin films, sensitivity Anomalous Hall effect (AHE) is recently discovered in magnetic element doped topological insulators (TIs), which promises low power consumption and high efficiency spintronics and electronics. This discovery broadens the family of Hall sensors. In this work, AHE sensors based on Cr doped Bi2Te3 topological insulator thin films are studied with two thicknesses (15 nm and 65 nm). It is found in both cases that ultrahigh Hall sensitivity can be obtained in Cr doped Bi2Te3. Hall sensitivity reaches 1666 Ω/T in sensor with 15nm TI thin film which is higher than that of the conventional semiconductor Hall effect sensor. The anomalous Hall effect of 65 nm sensors is even stronger, which causes the sensitivity increasing to 2620 Ω/T. Moreover, after comparing Cr doped Bi2Te3 with previously studied Mn doped Bi2Te3 TI Hall sensor, the sensitivity of present AHE sensor shows about 60 times higher in 65 nm sensors. The implementation of AHE sensors based on magnetic doped TI thin film indicates that the TIs are good candidates for ultra-sensitive AHE sensors.

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We deposited high quality (Sb1−xBix)2Te3 on mica substrate by molecular beam epitaxy and investigated their magnetotransport properties. It is found that the average surface roughness of thin films is lower than 2 nm. Moreover, a local maxima on the sheet resistance is obtained with x = 0.043, indicating a minimization of bulk conductivity at this composition. For (Sb0.957Bi0.043)2Te3, weak antilocalization with coefficient of -0.43 is observed, confirming the existence of 2D surface states. Moreover Shubnikov-de Hass oscillation behavior occurs under high magnetic field. The 2D carrier density is then determined as 0.81 × 1016 m−2, which is lower than that of most TIs reported previously, indicating that (Sb0.957Bi0.043)2Te3 is close to ideal TI composition of which the Dirac point and Fermi surface cross within the bulk bandgap. Our results thus demonstrate the best estimated composition for ideal TI is close to (Sb0.957Bi0.043)2Te3 and will be helpful for designing TI-based devices.