No Arabic abstract
Electronic structures of the tetradymites, Bi$_2$Te$_3$, Bi$_2$Te$_2$Se and Bi$_2$Se$_3$, containing various dopants and vacancies, are studied using the first principles calculations methods. We focus on the possibility of formation of the resonant levels (RL), confirming the formation of the RL by Sn in Bi$_2$Te$_3$, and predicting similar behavior of Sn in Bi$_2$Te$_2$Se and Bi$_2$Se$_3$. Vacancies, which are likely present on the chalcogen atoms in the real samples of Bi$_2$Te$_2$Se and Bi$_2$Se$_3$, are also studied and their charged donor and resonant behavior is discussed. Doping of the vacancy-containing materials with regular acceptors, like Ca or Mg, is shown to compensate the donor effect of vacancies, and $n-p$ crossover, while increasing the dopant concentration, is observed. We verify, that RL on Sn is not disturbed by the chalcogen vacancies in Bi$_2$Te$_2$Se and Bi$_2$Se$_3$, and for the Sn-doped materials with Se or Te vacancies, double-doping, instead of heavy doping with Sn, is suggested as an effective way of reaching the resonant level. This should help to avoid the smearing of the RL, which was a possible reason for an earlier unsuccessful experimental observation of the influence of the RL on thermoelectric properties of Sn doped Bi$_2$Te$_2$Se. Finally we show, that Al and Ga are possible new resonant impurities in the tetradymites, hoping that it will stimulate further experimental studies.
We analyze the finite lifetimes of the topologically protected electrons in the surface state of Bi2Te3 and Bi2Se3 due to elastic scattering off surface vacancies and as a function of energy. The scattering rates are decomposed into surface-to-surface and surface-to-bulk contributions, giving us new fundamental insights into the scattering properties of the topological surface states (TSS). If the number of possible final bulk states is much larger than the number of final surface states, then the surface-to-bulk contribution is of importance, otherwise the surface-to-surface contribution dominates. Additionally, we find defect resonances that have a significant impact on the scattering properties of the TSS. They can strongly change the lifetime of the surface state to vary between tens of fs to ps at surface defect concentrations of 1 at%.
Epitaxial films of Co40Fe40B20 (further - CoFeB) were grown on Bi2Te3(001) and Bi2Se3(001) substrates by laser molecular beam epitaxy (LMBE) technique at 200-400C. Bcc-type crystalline structure of CoFeB with (111) plane parallel to (001) plane of Bi2Te3 was observed, in contrast to polycrystalline CoFeB film formed on Bi2Se3(001) at RT using high-temperature seeding layer. Therefore, structurally ordered ferromagnetic thin films were obtained on the topological insulator surface for the first time. Using high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) 3D reciprocal space mapping, epitaxial relations of main crystallographic axes for the CoFeB/ Bi2Te3 heterostructure were revealed. MOKE and AFM measurements showed the isotropic azimuthal in-plane behavior of magnetization vector in CoFeB/ Bi2Te3, in contrast to 2nd order magnetic anisotropy seen in CoFeB/Bi2Se3. XPS measurements showed more stable behavior of CoFeB grown on Bi2Te3 to the oxidation, in compare to CoFeB grown on Bi2Se3. XAS and XMCD measurements of both concerned nanostructures allowed calculation of spin and orbital magnetic moments for Co and Fe. Additionally, crystalline structure and XMCD response of the CoFeB/BiTeI and Co55Fe45/BiTeI systems were studied, epitaxial relations of main crystallographic axes were found, and spin and orbital magnetic moments were calculated.
Electron irradiation is investigated as a way to dope the topological insulator Bi2Te3. For this, p-type Bi2Te3 single crystals have been irradiated with 2.5 MeV electrons at room temperature and electrical measurements have been performed in-situ as well as ex-situ in magnetic fields up to 14 T. The defects created by irradiation act as electron donors allowing the compensation of the initial hole-type conductivity of the material as well as the conversion of the conductivity from p- to n-type. The changes in carrier concentration are investigated using Hall effect and Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillations, clearly observable in the p-type samples before irradiation, but also after the irradiation-induced conversion of the conductivity to n-type. The SdH patterns observed for the magnetic field along the trigonal axis can be entirely explained assuming the contribution of only one valence and conduction band, respectively, and Zeeman-splitting of the orbital levels.
Magnetic interaction with the gapless surface states in topological insulator (TI) has been predicted to give rise to a few exotic quantum phenomena. However, the effective magnetic doping of TI is still challenging in experiment. Using first-principles calculations, the magnetic doping properties (V, Cr, Mn and Fe) in three strong TIs (Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$, Bi$_{2}$Te$_{3}$ and Sb$_{2}$Te$_{3}$) are investigated. We find that for all three TIs the cation-site substitutional doping is most energetically favorable with anion-rich environment as the optimal growth condition. Further our results show that under the nominal doping concentration of 4%, Cr and Fe doped Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$, Bi$_{2}$Te$_{3}$, and Cr doped Sb$_{2}$Te$_{3}$ remain as insulator, while all TIs doped with V, Mn and Fe doped Sb$_{2}$Te$_{3}$ become metal. We also show that the magnetic interaction of Cr doped Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$ tends to be ferromagnetic, while Fe doped Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$ is likely to be antiferromagnetic. Finally, we estimate the magnetic coupling and the Curie temperature for the promising ferromagnetic insulator (Cr doped Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$) by Monte Carlo simulation. These findings may provide important guidance for the magnetism incorporation in TIs experimentally.
Magnetic doping with transition metal ions is the most widely used approach to break timereversal symmetry in a topological insulator, a prerequisite for unlocking the TIs exotic potential. Recently, we reported the doping of Bi2Te3 thin films with rare earth ions, which, owing to their large magnetic moments, promise commensurately large magnetic gap openings in the topological surface states. However, only when doping with Dy has a sizable gap been observed in angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, which persists up to room-temperature. Although disorder alone could be ruled out as a cause of the topological phase transition, a fundamental understanding of the magnetic and electronic properties of Dy:Bi2Te3 remained elusive. Here, we present an X-ray magnetic circular dichroism, polarized neutron reflectometry, muon spin rotation, and resonant photoemission study of the microscopic magnetic and electronic properties. We find that the films are not simply paramagnetic but that instead the observed behavior can be well explained by the assumption of slowly fluctuating, inhomogeneous magnetic patches with increasing volume fraction as the temperature decreases. At liquid helium temperatures, a large effective magnetization can be easily introduced by the application of moderate magnetic fields, implying that this material is very suitable for proximity coupling to an underlying ferromagnetic insulator or in a heterostructure with transition metal-doped layers. However, the introduction of some charge carriers by the dopants cannot be excluded at least in these highly doped samples. Nevertheless, we find that the magnetic order is not mediated via the conduction channel in these rare earth doped samples and therefore magnetic order and carrier concentration are expected to be independently controllable. This is not generally the case for transition metal doped topological insulators.