- Post, KW;
- Chapler, BC;
- Liu, MK;
- Wu, JS;
- Stinson, HT;
- Goldflam, MD;
- Richardella, AR;
- Lee, JS;
- Reijnders, AA;
- Burch, KS;
- Fogler, MM;
- Samarth, N;
- Basov, DN
We report the Drude oscillator strength D and the magnitude of the bulk band gap E_{g} of the epitaxially grown, topological insulator (Bi,Sb)_{2}Te_{3}. The magnitude of E_{g}, in conjunction with the model independent f-sum rule, allows us to establish an upper bound for the magnitude of D expected in a typical Dirac-like system composed of linear bands. The experimentally observed D is found to be at or below this theoretical upper bound, demonstrating the effectiveness of alloying in eliminating bulk charge carriers. Moreover, direct comparison of the measured D to magnetoresistance measurements of the same sample supports assignment of the observed low-energy conduction to topological surface states.