• Proceedings of the Korean Magnestics Society Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.40-40
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• 2012

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.284-284
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• 2016

Topological insulator (TI) is a bulk-insulating material with topologically protected Dirac surface states in the band gap. In particular, $Bi_2Se_3$ attracted great attention as a model three-dimensional TI due to its simple electronic structure of the surface states in a relatively large band gap (~0.3 eV). However, experimental efforts using $Bi_2Se_3$ have been difficult due to the abundance of structural defects, which frequently results in the bulk conduction being dominant over the surface conduction in transport due to the bulk doping effects of the defect sites. One promising approach in avoiding this problem is to reduce the structural defects by heteroepitaxially grow $Bi_2Se_3$ on a substrate with a compatible lattice structure, while also preventing surface degradation by encapsulating the pristine interface between $Bi_2Se_3$ and the substrate in a clean growth environment. A particularly promising choice of substrate for the heteroepitaxial growth is hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), which has the same two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) layered structure and hexagonal lattice symmetry as $Bi_2Se_3$. Moreover, since h-BN is a dielectric insulator with a large bandgap energy of 5.97 eV and chemically inert surfaces, it is well suited as a substrate for high mobility electronic transport studies of vdW material systems. Here we report the heteroepitaxial growth and characterization of high quality topological insulator $Bi_2Se_3$ thin films prepared on h-BN layers. Especially, we used molecular beam epitaxy to achieve high quality TI thin films with extremely low defect concentrations and an ideal interface between the films and substrates. To optimize the morphology and microstructural quality of the films, a two-step growth was performed on h-BN layers transferred on transmission electron microscopy (TEM) compatible substrates. The resulting $Bi_2Se_3$ thin films were highly crystalline with atomically smooth terraces over a large area, and the $Bi_2Se_3$ and h-BN exhibited a clear heteroepitaxial relationship with an atomically abrupt and clean interface, as examined by high-resolution TEM. Magnetotransport characterizations revealed that this interface supports a high quality topological surface state devoid of bulk contribution, as evidenced by Hall, Shubnikov-de Haas, and weak anti-localization measurements. We believe that the experimental scheme demonstrated in this talk can serve as a promising method for the preparation of high quality TI thin films as well as many other heterostructures based on 2D vdW layered materials.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.306-306
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• 2011

Three dimensional(3D) topological insulators(TIs) of Bi binary alloys are characterized by a bulk energy gap with strong spin-orbit coupling and metallic surface states protected by time-reversal symmetry. It was reported that film forms of such materials were advantageous over bulk forms due to less defect density and better crystallinity. So far, the films have been prepared on several substrates including semiconductors and graphene. But, there were no studies on metal substrates. For electronic transport experiments and device applications, it is necessary to know epitaxial relation between TIs and metal electrodes. In this study, Atomically flat films of Bi2Se3 were grown on a Au(111) metal substrate by in-situ molecular beam epitaxy. Using home-built scanning tunneling microscope, we observed hexagonal atomic structures which corresponded to the outmost selenium atomic layer of Bi2Se3. Triangular-shaped defects known as Selenium vacancy were also found.

• Proceeding of EDISON Challenge
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• 2014.03a
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• pp.492-494
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• 2014

위상부도체(Topological insulator, (TI))는 특이한 금속성 표면 성질을 가지며 이 물질에 대해 많은 물성연구가 이루어져 오고 있다. TI 물질 중 하나인 $Bi_2Se_3$는 스핀트로닉스 또는 양자 컴퓨팅 분야에 전망이 밝은 물질이다. 본 논문에서는 $Bi_2Se_3$ (111) 표면의 산화농도에 대해 조사하였다. 결함이 없는 깨끗한 표면에서는 산소의 농도가 높을 때 에너지적으로 안정하며 표면결함이 있을 때에는 표면결함과 결합한 산소의 농도가 낮을 때 에너지적으로 안정한 것으로 나타났다. $Bi_2Se_3$ (111) 표면 산화 연구에서는 표면 점결함의 존재와 산소 농도를 함께 고려해야 할 것이다.

• Proceeding of EDISON Challenge
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• 2013.04a
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• pp.243-245
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• 2013

Topological insulator (TI) has non-trivial metallic surface states and has provoked many studies of property of this metarial. One of TI, $Bi_2Se_3$ is the promising metarial due to application of quantum devices. We investigate the effect of Ag adatom in the $Bi_2Se_3$ (111) surface. The silver atom prefers to locate within the vdW gap between the QLs rather than on the top surface. The effect of Ag adsorption is the rise of the Fermi level implying that the adsorbed Ag atoms behave like electron donors.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.302-302
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• 2011

The binary chalcogenide semiconductor Bi2Se3 is at the center of intensive research on a new state of matter known as topological insulators. It has Dirac point in their band structures with robust surface states that are protected against external perturbations by strong spin-orbit coupling with broken inversion symmetry. Such unique band configurations were confirmed by recent angle-resolved photoelectron emission spectroscopy experiments with an unwanted n-type doping effect, showing a Fermi level shift of about 0.3 eV caused by atomic defects such as Se vacancies. Since the number of defects can be reduced using the molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) method. We have prepared the Bi2Se3 film on noble metal Au(111) and semiconductor Si(111) substrates by MBE method. To characterize the film, we have introduced several surface sensitive techniques including x-ray photoemission electron spectroscopy (XPS) and micro Raman spectroscopy. Also, crystallinity of the film has been confirmed by x-ray diffraction (XRD). Using home-built scanning tunneling microscope, we observed the atomic structure of quintuple layered Bi2Se3 film on Au(111).

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.08a
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• pp.57-57
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• 2010

Sb(111) is a spin textured surface due to the strong spin-orbit coupling, often viewed as a proto-type topological insulator. We used scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) to characterize various Mn-induced subsurface defects existing at the surface of Mn-doped Sb at 50 K. Our STM images show that every defect exhibits 3-fold symmetry with a single rotational orientation and can be categorized by their shapes and sizes. We found more than 10 types of subsurface defects with distinctive orders, which allows the resolution of the vertical positions of the magnetic dopants lying more than 10 layers down from the surface. We will discuss about our findings in comparison with theoretical results.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetics Society
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2013

Spin-orbit coupling (SOC) effect is known to be the physical origin for various exotic magnetic phenomena in the low-dimensional systems. Recently, SOC also draws lots of attention in the study on magnetically doped thermoelectric alloys to determine their properties as the thermoelectric application as well as the topological insulator via the exact electronic structures determination near the Fermi level. In this research, aiming to investigate the spin-orbit coupling effect on the structural properties such as the lattice constants and the bulk modulus of the most widely investigated thermoelectric host material, $Bi_2Te_3$, we carried out the first-principles electronic structure calculation using the all-electron FLAPW (full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave) method. Employing both the local density approximation (LDA) and the generalized gradient approximation (GGA), the structural optimization is achieved by varying the in-plane lattice constant fixing the perpendicular lattice constant and vice versa, to find that the SOC effect increases the equilibrium lattices slightly in both directions while it markedly reduces the bulk modulus value implying the strong orientational dependence, which are attributed to the material's intrinsic structural anisotropy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.139.2-139.2
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• 2016

Electrons and phonons in chalcogenide-based materials play are important factors in the performance of an optical data storage media and thermoelectric devices. However, the fundamental kinetics of carriers in chalcogenide materials remains controversial, and active debate continues over the mechanism responsible for carrier relaxation. In this study, we investigated ultrafast carrier dynamics in an multilayered $\{Sb(3{\AA})/Te(9{\AA})\}n$ thin film during the transition from the amorphous to the crystalline phase using optical pump terahertz probe spectroscopy (OPTP), which permits the relationship between structural phase transition and optical property transitions to be examined. Using THz-TDS, we demonstrated that optical conductance and carrier concentration change as a function of annealing temperature with a contact-free optical technique. Moreover, we observed that the topological surface state (TSS) affects the degree of enhancement of carrier lifetime, which is closely related to the degree of spin-orbit coupling (SOC). The combination of an optical technique and a proposed carrier relaxation mechanism provides a powerful tool for monitoring TSS and SOC. Consequently, the response of the amorphous phase is dominated by an electron-phonon coupling effect, while that of the crystalline structure is controlled by a Dirac surface state and SOC effects. These results are important for understanding the fundamental physics of phase change materials and for optimizing and designing materials with better performance in optoelectronic devices.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2016.02a
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• pp.170.1-170.1
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• 2016

$Bi_2Te_3$ has long been studied for its excellent thermoelectric characteristics. Recently, this material has been known as a topological insulator (TI). The surface states within the bulk band gap of a TI, which are protected by the time reversal symmetry, contribute to the conduction at the surface, while the bulk is in insulating state. In contrast to the bulk defects tuning the chemical potential to the Dirac energy, the native defects near the surface are expected not to change the shape of the Fermi surface and the related spin structure. Using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), we have systematically characterized surface or near surface defects in p- and n- doped $Bi_2Te_3$, and identified their structure by first principles calculations. In addition, bias-polarity dependences of STM images revealed the electron donor/acceptor nature of each defect. A detailed theoretical study of the surface states near the Dirac energy reveals the robustness of the Dirac point, which verifies the effectiveness of the disturbance on the backscattering from various kinds of defects.