Growth and electronic structure of topological insulator Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$ thin films on graphene/SiC(0001) substrate

ORAL

Abstract

We report on the growth of atomically smooth and stoichiometric Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$ thin films on bilayer graphene prepared on SiC(0001) substrate using molecular beam epitaxy. It is found that the position of the Dirac point changes with film thickness, and that the Dirac transport regime appears in Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$ film as thin as 10 quintuple layers. By mapping the step edge-induced interference patterns with scanning tunneling microscopy, a linear Dirac surface state band is obtained. By manipulating the charge states of subsurface Fe acceptors, we demonstrate the presence of a bulk bandgap in the Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$ films. The high quality films pave a way for fundamental research of topological insulators, and are important for potential spintronic and quantum-computing applications at room temperature.

*This work was supported by National Science Foundation and Ministry of Science and Technology of China.

Authors

  • Can-Li Song

    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    • Institute of Physics.CAS.China
  • Yilin Wang

    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    • Institute of Physics.CAS.China
  • Xucun Ma

    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    • Institute of Physics.CAS.China
    • Institute of Physics, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, P. R. China
  • Ke He

    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    • Institute of Physics.CAS.China
    • Institute of Physics, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, P. R. China
  • Lili Wang

    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    • Institute of Physics.CAS.China
    • Institute of Physics, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, P. R. China
  • Jin-Feng Jia

    • Tsinghua University
    • Tsinghua University.China
  • Xi Chen

    • Tsinghua University
    • Tsinghua University.China
  • Qi-Kun Xue

    • Tsinghua University
    • Tsinghua University.China
    • Key Lab for Atomic, Molecular and Nanoscience, Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, P. R. China