Landau level states on a topological insulator thin film

Zhihua Yang, Jung Hoon Han

Published 2010-07-02, updated 2011-05-31Version 3

We analyze the four-dimensional Hamiltonian proposed to describe the band structure of the single-Dirac-cone family of topological insulators in the presence of a uniform perpendicular magnetic field. Surface Landau level(LL) states appear, decoupled from the bulk levels and following the quantized energy dispersion of a purely two-dimensional surface Dirac Hamiltonian. A small hybridization gap splits the degeneracy of the central n=0 LL with dependence on the film thickness and the field strength that can be obtained analytically. Explicit calculation of the spin and charge densities show that surface LL states are localized within approximately one quintuple layer from the surface termination. Some new surface-bound LLs are shown to exist at a higher Landau level index.