Exceptional electronic transport and quantum oscillations in thin bismuth crystals grown inside van der Waals materials

ORAL

Abstract

The boundaries of bismuth have attracted increasing recent attention due to the spin-momentum locking in 2D Rashba surface states and 1D helical edge mode. However, the transport characterization and the approaches to application were limited due to the restrictions of conventional grown bismuth thin films. We have developed a new synthesis approach where ultrathin bismuth crystals are molded from the melt phase inside vdW materials under compression. This method consistently produces bismuth thin crystals with micron-scale atomically flat surfaces and single crystal domains up to 10 um in size. We are also able to implement injection molding in the growth process, which opens new avenues for the direct growth of nanostructured crystals. The vdW-molded bismuth shows exceptional electronic transport, enabling the observation of Shubnikov–de Haas quantum oscillations originating from the (111) surface state Landau levels. By measuring the gate-dependent magnetoresistance, we observe multi-carrier quantum oscillations and Landau level splitting, with features originating from both the top and bottom surfaces. Our vdW-mold growth technique establishes a platform for electronic studies and control of bismuth’s Rashba surface states and topological boundary modes. Beyond bismuth, the vdW-molding approach provides a low-cost way to synthesize ultraflat crystals and directly integrate them into a vdW heterostructure.

*The fabrication and measurements of ultrathin bismuth devices was primarily supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under award number FA9550-21-1-0165, FA9550-23-1-0454 and FA9550-23-1-0454. Materials characterization and technique development was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) program through the UC Irvine Center for Complex and Active Materials (DMR-2011967) Seed Program.

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Publication: Exceptional electronic transport and quantum oscillations in thin bismuth crystals grown inside van der Waals materials
arxiv preprint
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2211.07681

Presenters

  • Laisi Chen

    • University of California, Irvine

Authors

  • Laisi Chen

    • University of California, Irvine

  • Amy X Wu

    • University of California, Irvine

  • Naol Tulu

    • University of California, Irvine

  • Joshua Wang

    • University of California, Irvine

  • Adrian Juanson

    • California State University Long Beach

  • Kenji Watanabe

    • National Institute for Materials Science
    • NIMS
    • Research Center for Electronic and Optical Materials, National Institute for Materials Science
    • Research Center for Functional Materials, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba 305-0044, Japan
    • National Institute for Material Science

  • Takashi Taniguchi

    • Kyoto Univ
    • National Institute for Materials Science
    • Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics
    • Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science
    • National Institute for Materials Sciences
    • NIMS
    • International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba 305-0044, Japan
    • National Institute for Material Science
    • International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, NIMS, Japan
    • International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, Tsukuba
    • National Institue for Materials Science
    • Kyoto University
    • National Institute of Materials Science
    • International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics and National Institute for Materials Science

  • Michael T Pettes

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory

  • Marshall A Campbell

    • University of California, Irvine

  • Chaitanya A Gadre

    • University of California, Irvine

  • Yinong Zhou

    • University of California, Irvine

  • Hangman Chen

    • University of California, Irvine

  • Penghui Cao

    • University of California, Irvine

  • Luis A Jauregui

    • University of California, Irvine

  • Ruqian Wu

    • University of California, Irvine

  • Xiaoqing Pan

    • University of California, Irvine

  • Javier Sanchez-Yamagishi

    • University of California Irvine
    • University of California, Irvine