We
have experimentally investigated the effect of electron temperature
on transport in the two-dimensional Dirac surface states of the three-dimensional
topological insulator HgTe. We have found that around the minimal
conductivity point, where both electrons and holes are present, heating
the carriers with a DC current results in a nonmonotonic differential
resistance of narrow channels. We have shown that the observed initial
increase in resistance can be attributed to electron–hole scattering,
while the decrease follows naturally from the change in Fermi energy
of the charge carriers. Both effects are governed dominantly by a
van Hove singularity in the bulk valence band. The results demonstrate
the importance of interband electron–hole scattering in the
transport properties of topological insulators.