TY - JOUR
T1 - Spatial potential ripples of azimuthal surface modes in topological insulator Bi2Te3nanowires
AU - Muñoz Rojo, Miguel
AU - Zhang, Yingjie
AU - Manzano, Cristina V.
AU - Alvaro, Raquel
AU - Gooth, Johannes
AU - Salmeron, Miquel
AU - Martin-Gonzalez, Marisol
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank Prof. J.E. Moore for inspiring discussions on topological insulators. M.M-G got financial support and directed the ERC project under which the project was developed. M.M.R. wants to acknowledge his fellowship JAE-Pre Doc for financial support. Y.Z. and M.S. was supported by the “Self-Assembly of Organic/ Inorganic Nanocomposite Materials” program, Office of Science, the Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES), Materials Sciences and Engineering (MSE) Division of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. TEM analysis was performed by M.V.P. Altoe at the Imaging and Manipulation Facility at the Molecular Foundry at the LBNL that is supported by the Department of Energy Office of Sciences, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Contract DE-AC02-05CH1123.
PY - 2016/1/11
Y1 - 2016/1/11
N2 - Topological insulators (TI) nanowires (NW) are an emerging class of structures, promising both novel quantum effects and potential applications in low-power electronics, thermoelectrics and spintronics. However, investigating the electronic states of TI NWs is complicated, due to their small lateral size, especially at room temperature. Here, we perform scanning probe based nanoscale imaging to resolve the local surface potential landscapes of Bi 2 Te 3 nanowires (NWs) at 300 K. We found equipotential rings around the NWs perimeter that we attribute to azimuthal 1D modes. Along the NW axis, these modes are altered, forming potential ripples in the local density of states, due to intrinsic disturbances. Potential mapping of electrically biased NWs enabled us to accurately determine their conductivity which was found to increase with the decrease of NW diameter, consistent with surface dominated transport. Our results demonstrate that TI NWs can pave the way to both exotic quantum states and novel electronic devices.
AB - Topological insulators (TI) nanowires (NW) are an emerging class of structures, promising both novel quantum effects and potential applications in low-power electronics, thermoelectrics and spintronics. However, investigating the electronic states of TI NWs is complicated, due to their small lateral size, especially at room temperature. Here, we perform scanning probe based nanoscale imaging to resolve the local surface potential landscapes of Bi 2 Te 3 nanowires (NWs) at 300 K. We found equipotential rings around the NWs perimeter that we attribute to azimuthal 1D modes. Along the NW axis, these modes are altered, forming potential ripples in the local density of states, due to intrinsic disturbances. Potential mapping of electrically biased NWs enabled us to accurately determine their conductivity which was found to increase with the decrease of NW diameter, consistent with surface dominated transport. Our results demonstrate that TI NWs can pave the way to both exotic quantum states and novel electronic devices.
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U2 - 10.1038/srep19014
DO - 10.1038/srep19014
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84954189752
SN - 2045-2322
VL - 6
JO - Scientific reports
JF - Scientific reports
M1 - 19014
ER -