Topological crystalline insulator Pb{sub x}Sn{sub 1-x}Te thin films on SrTiO{sub 3} (001) with tunable Fermi levels

Journal Article · Thu May 01 04:00:00 EDT 2014 · APL Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4876637· OSTI ID:22269161

Guo, Hua; Liu, Jun-Wei; Wang, Zhen-Yu; Wu, Rui; Ji, Shuai-Hua; Duan, Wen-Hui; Chen, Xi; Xue, Qi-Kun ^[1]; Yan, Chen-Hui ^[1]; Zhang, Zhi-Dong ^[2]; Wang, Li-Li; He, Ke; Ma, Xu-Cun ^[3]

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1. State Key Laboratory of Low-Dimensional Quantum Physics, Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084 (China)
2. Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang 110016 (China)
3. Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190 (China)

In this letter, we report a systematic study of topological crystalline insulator Pb{sub x}Sn{sub 1-x}Te (0 < x < 1) thin films grown by molecular beam epitaxy on SrTiO{sub 3}(001). Two domains of Pb{sub x}Sn{sub 1-x}Te thin films with intersecting angle of α ≈ 45° were confirmed by reflection high energy diffraction, scanning tunneling microscopy, and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). ARPES study of Pb{sub x}Sn{sub 1-x}Te thin films demonstrated that the Fermi level of PbTe could be tuned by altering the temperature of substrate whereas SnTe cannot. An M-shaped valance band structure was observed only in SnTe but PbTe is in a topological trivial state with a large gap. In addition, co-evaporation of SnTe and PbTe results in an equivalent variation of Pb concentration as well as the Fermi level of Pb{sub x}Sn{sub 1-x}Te thin films.

• OSTI ID: 22269161
• Journal Information: APL Materials, Journal Name: APL Materials Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 2; ISSN AMPADS; ISSN 2166-532X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
DIFFRACTION
EVAPORATION
FERMI LEVEL
LEAD TELLURIDES
MOLECULAR BEAM EPITAXY
PHOTOEMISSION
SCANNING TUNNELING MICROSCOPY
SPECTROSCOPY
STRONTIUM TITANATES
SUBSTRATES
THIN FILMS
TIN TELLURIDES