Single domain Bi2Se3 films grown on InP(111)A by molecular-beam epitaxy

Abstract

We report the growth of single-domain epitaxial Bi2Se3 films on InP(111)A substrate by molecular-beam epitaxy. Nucleation of Bi2Se3 proceeds at steps, so the lattices of the substrate play the guiding role for a unidirectional crystalline film in the step-flow growth mode. There exists a strong chemical interaction between atoms at the heterointerface, so the growth does not follow the van der Waals epitaxy process. A mounded morphology of thick Bi2Se3 epilayers suggests a growth kinetics dictated by the Ehrlich-Schwoebel barrier. The Schubnikov de Haas oscillations observed in magnetoresistance measurements are attributed to Landau quantization of the bulk states of electrons.

Topological Insulator Film Growth by Molecular Beam Epitaxy: A Review

“…However, on rougher substrates, Bi 2 Se 3 films grew via a step flow growth method, and single-domain films were consistently observed. The strong interaction between InP substrates and Bi 2 Se 3 films has led Guo et al to suggest that these films are not grown by van der Waals epitaxy at all [38]. It may be that the low lattice mismatch between Bi 2 Se 3 and InP (~3%) allows the substrate to have a greater influence on the subsequent film growth.…”

“…In a traditional III/V chamber, a phosphorous flux is easy to supply, but this becomes much more difficult in a chalcogenide-only chamber. Some success has been obtained by supplying the chalcogenide atom in excess when desorbing surface oxides from III/V and other substrates [38]. In addition to surface oxides, a large fraction of the available substrates have surface dangling bonds which must be satisfied.…”

Characterizing the structure of topological insulator thin films

“…Some typical substrates commonly used are GaAs (111), InP (111), sapphire, Si (111), and SrTiO 3 (STO) (111), among others. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] These films grow c-axis oriented out of plane, using the typical hexagonal indexing scheme where the (0 0 n) reflections are along the (111) direction if the rhombohedral unit cell was used instead.…”

Twin domain imaging in topological insulator Bi2Te3 and Bi2Se3 epitaxial thin films by scanning X-ray nanobeam microscopy and electron backscatter diffraction

“…The deposited layer followed the threefold symmetry of the substrate surface and no twin domains were detected. For vicinal InP(111)A substrates Guo et al (2013) have found that the miscut steps play a stabilizing role in the step-flow growth mode which suppresses the twin domains as well. In the mentioned work the existence of twin domains was detected by XRD pole-figure measurements and microscopically observed by cross-sectional high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy.…”