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Title: Nanoimaging of Electronic Heterogeneity in Bi2Se3 and Sb2Te3 Nanocrystals

Abstract

Topological insulators (TIs) are quantum materials with topologically protected surface states surrounding an insulating bulk. However, defect-induced bulk conduction often dominates transport properties in most TI materials, obscuring the Dirac surface states. In order to realize intrinsic topological insulating properties, it is thus of great significance to identify the spatial distribution of defects, understand their formation mechanism, and finally control or eliminate their influence. For this study, the electronic heterogeneity in polyol-synthesized Bi2Se3 and chemical vapor deposition-grown Sb2 Te3 nanocrystals is systematically investigated by multimodal atomic-to-mesoscale resolution imaging. In particular, by combining the Drude response sensitivity of infrared scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy with the work-function specificity of mirror electron microscopy, characteristic mesoscopic patterns are identified, which are related to carrier concentration modulation originating from the formation of defects during the crystal growth process. This correlative imaging and modeling approach thus provides the desired guidance for optimization of growth parameters, crucial for preparing TI nanomaterials to display their intrinsic exotic Dirac properties.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [3];  [6];  [6];  [1];  [7];  [5];  [4];  [7];  [3];  [2];  [5];  [5]
  1. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Dalian (China). State Key Lab. of Catalysis, Center for Excellence in Nanoscience and Dalian Inst. of Chemical Physics; Univ. of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (China)
  2. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). Dept. of Physics, Dept. of Chemistry and Joint Inst. for Lab. Astrophysics (JILA)
  3. Univ. of Science and Technology of China, Hefei (China). Hefei National Lab. for Physical Sciences at the Microscale
  4. Univ. of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (China). Beijing National Lab. for Condensed Matter Physics and Inst. of Physics
  5. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Dalian (China). State Key Lab. of Catalysis, Center for Excellence in Nanoscience and Dalian Inst. of Chemical Physics
  6. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Advanced Light Source (ALS)
  7. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Materials Sciences Division
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division; National Key Research and Development Program of China; National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); National Science Foundation (NSF)
OSTI Identifier:
1432242
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1412594
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-05CH11231; 2016YFA0203500; 51290272; 11474350; SC0008807; DMR‐1548924
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Advanced Electronic Materials
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 4; Journal Issue: 1; Related Information: © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim; Journal ID: ISSN 2199-160X
Publisher:
Wiley
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS; 77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY; 75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; correlated imaging; electronic heterogeneity; mirror electron microscopy; scanning near field optical microscopy; topological insulator

Citation Formats

Lu, Xiaowei, Khatib, Omar, Du, Xutao, Duan, Jiahua, Wei, Wei, Liu, Xianli, Bechtel, Hans A., D'Apuzzo, Fausto, Yan, Mingtao, Buyanin, Alexander, Fu, Qiang, Chen, Jianing, Salmeron, Miquel, Zeng, Jie, Raschke, Markus B., Jiang, Peng, and Bao, Xinhe. Nanoimaging of Electronic Heterogeneity in Bi2Se3 and Sb2Te3 Nanocrystals. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1002/aelm.201700377.
Lu, Xiaowei, Khatib, Omar, Du, Xutao, Duan, Jiahua, Wei, Wei, Liu, Xianli, Bechtel, Hans A., D'Apuzzo, Fausto, Yan, Mingtao, Buyanin, Alexander, Fu, Qiang, Chen, Jianing, Salmeron, Miquel, Zeng, Jie, Raschke, Markus B., Jiang, Peng, & Bao, Xinhe. Nanoimaging of Electronic Heterogeneity in Bi2Se3 and Sb2Te3 Nanocrystals. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/aelm.201700377
Lu, Xiaowei, Khatib, Omar, Du, Xutao, Duan, Jiahua, Wei, Wei, Liu, Xianli, Bechtel, Hans A., D'Apuzzo, Fausto, Yan, Mingtao, Buyanin, Alexander, Fu, Qiang, Chen, Jianing, Salmeron, Miquel, Zeng, Jie, Raschke, Markus B., Jiang, Peng, and Bao, Xinhe. Mon . "Nanoimaging of Electronic Heterogeneity in Bi2Se3 and Sb2Te3 Nanocrystals". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/aelm.201700377. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1432242.
@article{osti_1432242,
title = {Nanoimaging of Electronic Heterogeneity in Bi2Se3 and Sb2Te3 Nanocrystals},
author = {Lu, Xiaowei and Khatib, Omar and Du, Xutao and Duan, Jiahua and Wei, Wei and Liu, Xianli and Bechtel, Hans A. and D'Apuzzo, Fausto and Yan, Mingtao and Buyanin, Alexander and Fu, Qiang and Chen, Jianing and Salmeron, Miquel and Zeng, Jie and Raschke, Markus B. and Jiang, Peng and Bao, Xinhe},
abstractNote = {Topological insulators (TIs) are quantum materials with topologically protected surface states surrounding an insulating bulk. However, defect-induced bulk conduction often dominates transport properties in most TI materials, obscuring the Dirac surface states. In order to realize intrinsic topological insulating properties, it is thus of great significance to identify the spatial distribution of defects, understand their formation mechanism, and finally control or eliminate their influence. For this study, the electronic heterogeneity in polyol-synthesized Bi2Se3 and chemical vapor deposition-grown Sb2 Te3 nanocrystals is systematically investigated by multimodal atomic-to-mesoscale resolution imaging. In particular, by combining the Drude response sensitivity of infrared scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy with the work-function specificity of mirror electron microscopy, characteristic mesoscopic patterns are identified, which are related to carrier concentration modulation originating from the formation of defects during the crystal growth process. This correlative imaging and modeling approach thus provides the desired guidance for optimization of growth parameters, crucial for preparing TI nanomaterials to display their intrinsic exotic Dirac properties.},
doi = {10.1002/aelm.201700377},
journal = {Advanced Electronic Materials},
number = 1,
volume = 4,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Dec 11 00:00:00 EST 2017},
month = {Mon Dec 11 00:00:00 EST 2017}
}

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Figures / Tables:

Figure 1 Figure 1: Structure and optical characterizations of Bi2Se3 nanocrystals. a) Representative large-scale TEM image. b-e) Topographic (b-c) and corresponding s-SNOM amplitude (d-e) images of two individual Bi2Se3 nanocrystals drop-casted onto the SiO2/Si substrates with incident infrared wavelength of 977 cm-1 . f) Line profiles taken from (b) and (d), respectively.

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Figures/Tables have been extracted from DOE-funded journal article accepted manuscripts.