• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.139-139
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• 2012

With angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), the surface electronic band structures of Pt3Co (111) and Pt3Ni (111) single crystals are investigated, which allow to study the bonding interaction between chemically absorbed atomic oxygen and its surfaces. The d-band electrons of subsurface TM are separated from the direct chemical bonding with atomic oxygen. That is, the TM does not contribute to direct chemical bonding with oxygen. From the density functional theory (DFT) calculations, it is identified that the main origin of improved oxygen absorption property, i.e. softening of Pt-O bonding, is due to the suppression of Pt surface-states which is generated from change of interlayer potential, i.e. charge polarization, between Pt-top and TM-subsurface. Our results point out the critical roles of subsurface TM in modifying surface electronic structures, which in turn can be utilized to tune surface chemical properties.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.92-92
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• 2014

Recently, many state-of-art spectroscopy techniques are used to unravel the mysteries of condensed matters. And numerous heterostructures have provided a new avenue to search for new emergent phenomena. Especially, near the interface, various forms of symmetry-breaking can appear, which induces many novel phenomena. Although these intriguing phenomena can be emerged at the interface, by using conventional measurement techniques, the experimental investigations have been limited due to the buried nature of interface. One of the ways to overcome this limitation is in situ investigation of the layer-by-layer evolution of the electronic structure with increasing of the thickness. Namely, with very thin layer, we can measure the electronic structure strongly affected by the interface effect, but with thick layer, the bulk property becomes strong. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) is powerful tool to directly obtain electronic structure, and it is very surface sensitive. Thus, the layer-by-layer evolution of the electronic structure in oxide heterostructure can be investigated by using in situ ARPES. LaNiO3 (LNO) heterostructures have recently attracted much attention due to theoretical predictions for many intriguing quantum phenomena. The theories suggest that, by tuning external parameters such as misfit strain and dimensionality in LNO heterostructure, the latent orders, which is absent in bulk, including charge disproportionation, spin-density-wave order and Mott insulator, could be emerged in LNO heterostructure. Here, we performed in situ ARPES studies on LNO films with varying the misfit strain and thickness. (1) By using LaAlO3 (-1.3%), NdGaO3 (+0.3%), and SrTiO3 (+1.7%) substrates, we could obtain LNO films under compressive strain, nearly strain-free, and tensile strain, respectively. As strain state changes from compressive to tensile, the Ni eg bands are rearranged and cross the Fermi level, which induces a change of Fermi surface (FS) topology. Additionally, two different FS superstructures are observed depending on strain states, which are attributed to signatures of latent charge and spin orderings in LNO films. (2) We also deposited LNO ultrathin films under tensile strain with thickness between 1 and 10 unit-cells. We found that the Fermi surface nesting effect becomes strong in two-dimensions and significantly enhances spin-density-wave order. The further details are discussed more in presentation. This work was collaborated with Hyang Keun Yoo, Seung Ill Hyun, Eli Rotenberg, Ji Hoon Shim, Young Jun Chang and Hyeong-Do Kim.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.14-15
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• 2010

Recently there has been growing interest in topological insulators or the quantum spin Hall (QSH) phase, which are insulating materials with bulk band gaps but have metallic edge states that are formed topologically and robust against any non-magnetic impurity [1]. In a three-dimensional material, the two-dimensional surface states correspond to the edge states (topological metal) and their intriguing nature in terms of electronic and spin structures have been experimentally observed in bulk Bi1-xSbx single crystals [2,3,4]. However, if we want to know the transport properties of these topological metals, high purity samples as well as very low temperature will be needed because of the contribution from bulk states or impurity effects. In a recent report, it was also shown that an intriguing coupling between the surface and bulk states will occur [5]. A simple solution to this bothersome problem is to prepare a topological metal on an ultrathin film, in which the surface-to-bulk ratio is drastically increased. Therefore in the present study, we have investigated if there is a method to make an ultrathin Bi1-xSbx film on a semiconductor substrate. From reflection high-energy electron diffraction observation, it was found that single crystal Bi1-xSbx films (0${\sim}30\;{\AA}A$ can be prepared on Si(111)-$7{\times}7$. The transport properties of such films were characterized by in situ monolithic micro four-point probes [6]. The temperature dependence of the resistivity for the x=0.1 samples was insulating when the film thickness was $240\;{\AA}A$. However, it became metallic as the thickness was reduced down to $30\;{\AA}A$, indicating surface-state dominant electrical conduction. Figure 1 shows the Fermi surface of $40\;{\AA}A$ thick Bi0.92Sb0.08 (a) and Bi0.84Sb0.16 (b) films mapped by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. The basic features of the electronic structure of these surface states were shown to be the same as those found on bulk surfaces, meaning that topological metals can be prepared at the surface of an ultrathin film. The details will be given in the presentation.