Quantum transport of two-species Dirac fermions in dual-gated three-dimensional topological insulators

Topological insulators are a novel class of quantum matter with a gapped insulating bulk, yet gapless spin-helical Dirac fermion conducting surface states. Here, we report local and non-local electrical and magneto transport measurements in dual-gated BiSbTeSe2 thin film topological insulator devices, with conduction dominated by the spatially separated top and bottom surfaces, each hosting a single species of Dirac fermions with independent gate control over the carrier type and density. We observe many intriguing quantum transport phenomena in such a fully tunable two-species topological Dirac gas, including a zero-magnetic-field minimum conductivity close to twice the conductance quantum at the double Dirac point, a series of ambipolar two-component half-integer Dirac quantum Hall states and an electron-hole total filling factor zero state (with a zero-Hall plateau), exhibiting dissipationless (chiral) and dissipative (non-chiral) edge conduction, respectively. Such a system paves the way to explore rich physics, ranging from topological magnetoelectric effects to exciton condensation. Novel physics of topological aspects are obscured due to lack of effective way to manipulate topological particles. Here, Xu et al. demonstrate independent control of Dirac fermions on top and bottom surfaces of BiSbTeSe2flakes by dual-gating, which suggests a way to manipulate exotic particles.