Purely Surface Electric Transport Phenomenon on a Three-Dimensional Topological Insulator

Abstract

We theoretically study the electric current induced by the temporally oscillating magnetic field onto a three-dimensional topological insulator based on the linear response theory. The electric current flows on its surface because of the unique characters of the surface states: the linear dispersion in two-dimension and the chiral spin texture on the Fermi surface. In the bulk region, on the other hand, the current is absent because of the degeneracy for the bulk bands. The response function has a peak structure when the frequency of the magnetic field is equal to twice of the Fermi energy of the surface states measured from the Dirac node. This feature is unique to the surface states on the three-dimensional topological insulator.