Scanning Tunneling Microscopy of Gate Tunable Topological Insulator Bi2Se3 Thin Films

Published

March 12, 2013

Author(s)

Tong Zhang, Niv Levy, Jeonghoon Ha, Young Kuk, Joseph A. Stroscio

Abstract

Electrical field control of the carrier density of topological insulators (TI) has greatly expanded the possible practical use of these materials. However, the combination of low temperature local probe studies and a gate tunable TI device remains challenging. We have overcome this limitation by scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy measurements on in situ molecular beam epitaxy growth of Bi2Se3 films on SrTiO3 substrates with pre-patterned electrodes. Using this gating method, we are able to shift the Fermi level of the top surface states by ≈250 meV on a 3 nm thick Bi2Se3 device. We report field effect studies of the surface state dispersion, band gap, and electronic structure at the Fermi level.

Citation

Physical Review B

Volume

87

Issue

11

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.87.115410

Local Download

Keywords

scanning tunneling spectroscopy, scanning tunneling microscopy, topological insulator, Bi2Se3, field effect

Citation

Zhang, T. , Levy, N. , Ha, J. , Kuk, Y. and Stroscio, J. (2013), Scanning Tunneling Microscopy of Gate Tunable Topological Insulator Bi2Se3 Thin Films, Physical Review B, [online], https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.87.115410, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=913044 (Accessed October 11, 2025)