Synthesis and characterization of a Sb2Te3/Bi2Te3 p-n junction heterostructure via electrodeposition in nanoporous membranes

• Main Authors: Rashmi Rani, Sandrine Tusseau-Nenez, Pierre-Eugene Coulon, Travis.L. Wade, Marcin Konczykowski
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2021-06-01
• Series: iScience
• Subjects: Nanoscience; materials science; materials synthesis
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004221006623

Summary: Topological insulators (TIs) are bulk insulators with metallic surface states that can be described by a single Dirac cone. However, low-dimensional solids such as nanowires (NWs) are a challenge, due to the difficulty of separating surface contributions from bulk carriers. Fabrication of NWs with high surface-to-volume ratio can be realized by different methods such as chemical vapor transport, molecular beam epitaxy, and electrodeposition. The last method is used in the present work allowing the growth of structures such as p-n junctions, intercalation of magnetic or superconducting dots. We report the synthesis of high-quality TI NW: Bi2Te3, Sb2Te3 and p-n junction via electrodeposition. Structural, morphological, and nanostructure properties of NWs have been investigated by various characterization techniques. Interface structures and lateral heterojunctions (LHJ) in p-n junction NWs has also been made.